LuXembourg Takes Next Step in Nation Branding with Let's Make it Happen Initiative

On Thursday 20 June 2024, Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy held what it described as the first "LuXembourg Community Event" organised by the promotion of brand image, better known as the "Luxembourg – Let's Make it Happen" (LMIH) initiative.

The event has held at the Cercle Cité in Place d'Armes in Luxembourg city centre aiming to celebrate and develop the community of actors active in the promotion of Luxembourg, inaugurate the integration of brand image promotion within the Ministry of the Economy and emphasise its importance for the promotion of the country, as well as affirm talent attraction as a priority for the country and highlight the link between talent attraction and brand image promotion.

The LMIH initiative is an extension of the Nation Branding initiative which was developed pre-pandemic; this builds on what had been achieved and has added more layers to the complex issue, this time marking out and implementing a strategy to promote Luxembourg abroad to attract people to the Grand Duchy.

The event was an opportunity for attendees to discover projects and coordination actions undertaken by LMIH to promote Luxembourg abroad, in particular in terms of talent attraction.

Moderated by Philip Crowther, Journalist at Associated Press, the formal part of the multilingual event involved a couple of addresses and a short discussion, before a reception. He referenced the publication of the new book "Faces of Luxembourg" from which he read an excerpt about where people can expect to meet each other - the Schouberfouer on the Glacis and the National Day festivities.

Lex Delles, Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Energy and Tourism, also talked in different languages, mainly in French and also in English, stressing the multiculturalism make-up of the country and its diversity, with inhabitants from many different nationalities. He also mentioned the High Committee for Talent Attraction which had led the initiative.

Steve Duncan, expert in the areas of talent attraction and retention and trade and investment promotion, talked about attracting talent to Luxembourg. He had worked for cities and countries such as Singapore, Costa Rica and Helsinki, and now Luxembourg. He explained about five elements of talent insights, adding that talent attraction has a familiar "path to purchase" - one has first to "win the journey". 1 today's traveller is tomorrow's talent -; 2 talent most often relocates to seek a higher standard of living, of which safety / crime rate and cost of living top the list of criteria; 3 destination are digitising their career and lifestyle opportunities, where a digital footprint matters; 4 high performing locations combine quality of life and smart policy - the top performers have a mix of all the criteria, with the "lived experience" from other "expats" who may be already there; 5 reception and integration of internationals into their community. In his presentation he referenced aspects of what other cities and countries are doing, from Estonia and Helsinki to Milan. In answer to his question "What is Luxembourg's 'discovery story'?" he asked what we can each contribute.

Beryl Koltz, Head of the Luxembourg Brand Image Promotion, is a communications consultant and has a background in filmmaking; in this context she showed a short promotional video promoting Luxembourg "common ground". She referenced the various attractors mentioned by the previous speaker and the various social media campaigns she has led for Luxembourg, including the "free" campaign; she also mentioned she is working on a talent attraction website for Luxembourg. This is part of the Strategy and Action Plan 2021-2025.

Yannick Majerus, Network Coordination & Monitoring Manager, and Filipa Mendes, Legal and Financial Manager, then joined them on stage. They presented Luxembourg's new "Let's Make it Happen" collection available from Luxembourg House and LetzShop, and also mentioned their involvement at the Paris 3024 Summer Olympics and Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan.

The new publication "Faces of Luxembourg" goes on sale today, Friday 21 June 2024, on the eve of the National Day festivities.

High Committee

Earlier in he day, the first meeting of the High Committee for talent attraction, retention and development took place, under the chairmanship of Minister Delles.

Provided for by the coalition agreement, the High Committee is a consultative body whose purpose is to give opinions and make proposals in order to guide the government's action in the area of ​​attraction, retention and development of talent. The Chamber of Commerce, the Chamber of Trades and the Chamber of Employees are represented, as well as the ministers responsible for Labour, Foreign Affairs, Higher Education, Finance, Vocational Training and Immigration.

Afterwards, Minister Delles recalled that "in a context where baby boomers are retiring and where we need advanced skills to succeed in the double digital and environmental transition, the shortage of talent is one of the main challenges of the Luxembourg economy". For the minister, "any person that the Luxembourg economy needs is a talent, regardless of their level of qualification. It could be a craftsman who installs photovoltaic panels, a caregiver, a hyper-specialised IT specialist or the CEO of a bank".