GR Business Days, which took place on the Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18tJune, has become an important rendez-vous for business, SMEs and innovative start-ups; organised by the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, it is now more than just a show, demonstrating the considerable dynamism of the Greater Region internationally.
The purpose of the 4th edition of this popular trade show, which is oriented towards B2B (business to business), is to further develop business and commerce between all the economic players in the ‘ecosystem’ of the Greater Region. The idea, born by the Minister of Finance, Pierre Gramegna, when at the helm of the Chambre de commerce, is to help businesses by contributing to what they know best by exchanging and collaborating more efficiently together.
There were over 240 exhibitors (a 2.5% increase from last year), with around 50% coming internationally. Delegations from Poland, Hungary, Slovenia and the Netherlands were stakeholders in the 2015 edition, with the province of Kocaeli in Turkey as "Region of Honour", who were joined by representatives from Tunisia, China, India and Senegal where foreign investors from the region are already present. A special space was dedicated to foreign delegations in the hall.
Many interesting bilateral meetings, thematic workshops and interactive lectures were offered to exhibitors and visitors. In 2014 there were apparently around 700 pre-registrations of visitors and that increased, this year, to 1,200, showing just how popular the event is becoming.
At the close of the first day there was a conference with enthusiastic ministers and delegates from the region. The representative from Saarland opened the discussion on the idea that the region would like to emulate Luxembourg by developing ‘multi-lingual’ exchanges based in French and German, even though one might imagine that English is clearly, on the ground, the language of business.
At the closing ceremony, Pierre Gramegna, Luxembourg's Minister of Finance, delivered a speech and was complemented for his part in creating GR Business Days. A huge cake in the form of a map was presented to celebrate the 20th year of the creation of the Greater Region and this was followed by a ‘stand-up’ dinner with ambient piano music offered to the attendees.
Photo by Clive Munn
