Luxembourg Extends Emergency.lu Framework Contract until 2026

The Luxembourg government has extended the joint emergency.lu initiative, a public-private partnership with the companies SES Techcom, a subsidiary 100% owned by SES, and HITEC Luxembourg S.A., in collaboration with Luxembourg Air Ambulance, for six years.

On Friday 18 December 2020, Luxembourg's Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs, Franz Fayot, Philippe Osch from HITEC Luxembourg, Alan Kuresevic from SES Techcom and Frank Halmes from Luxembourg Air Ambulance signed an agreement to continue the missions of the rapid response solution until 2026.

Emergency.lu is part of the challenge of global response capacity in humanitarian emergencies, providing a solution to deal with the lack of communication infrastructure in the first hours after a large-scale humanitarian disaster. The solution also provides communication services in remote areas hit by chronic crises.

Since January 2012, Luxembourg's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs has deployed telecommunications devices in support of humanitarian organisations around the world, namely in the Bahamas, Chad, Comoros, the Dominican Republic, Guinea, Haiti, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Saint Martin, South Sudan, Syria, Vanuatu and Venezuela. In close collaboration with the Grand-Ducal Fire and Rescue Corps (Corps grand-ducal d'incendie et de secours - CGDIS), an operational partner of emergency.lu, 40 volunteers from the group in charge of humanitarian missions were dispatched to disaster areas to install and operate the systems.

Emergency.lu will continue to provide ICT services to humanitarian agencies, the population and governments of affected countries. Innovative and at the cutting edge of technology, the new version of the platform is expected to be more efficient, flexible and extendable.

During the signing ceremony, Minister Franz Fayot showed pride in one of the flagship projects of the Luxembourg Development Cooperation programme: "Putting technical expertise in the field of the satellite segment terrestrial and ICT services of Luxembourg companies HITEC Luxembourg and SES Techcom available to UN agencies, strengthens the footprint of Luxembourg Humanitarian Affairs in the international community, access to reliable telecommunications services being a crucial element for the work aid workers, both after natural disasters and in chronic crises”.