Xavier Bettel meets Heads of Cisco, Alibaba, Rakuten in Davos

On Wednesday 23 January 2019, during his second day at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Luxembourg's Prime Minister, Xavier Bettel, followed up a series of meetings with various economic and political decision-makers.

Amongst others, the Prime Minister met with Cisco Systems CEO, Chuck Robbins, to discuss the Country Digital Acceleration Plan, a programme that covers areas as diverse as cybersecurity, Fintech, education and e-business skills and which aims to accelerate the national strategy of digitisation of Luxembourg. PM Bettel and Chuck Robbins have also agreed to explore other areas of collaboration between Cisco and Luxembourg.

In a meeting with Jack Ma, founder and Executive Chairman of the Alibaba Group, the Prime Minister discussed the opportunities and challenges and also the dangers that artificial intelligence can pose to our society. "Artificial intelligence is an opportunity for the European economy and our society," said the Prime Minister during the meeting. "We must seize it to avoid Europe being overtaken by Asia or the United States, while respecting our socio-cultural values," concluded Xavier Bettel who welcomed the good relations between Luxembourg and Alibaba, which has just set up the European headquarters of its financial branch, Ant Financial, in Luxembourg.

During a meeting with Singapore Finance Minister, Swee Keat Heng, the two politicians discussed the excellent bilateral relations between Luxembourg and Singapore, which they agreed to further develop, particularly in the area of finance.

On Thursday 24 January 2019, the Prime Minister also met with Mickey Mikitani, founder, CEO and Chairman of Rakuten Inc., a Japanese online trading giant, whose financial branch has established its European headquarters in Luxembourg. The discussions focused on the development opportunities for Rakuten's activities in Luxembourg, including financial and telecommunications activities.