Xavier Bettel, Luxembourg's Prime Minister;
Credit: SIP
On Thursday 1 July 2021, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel met with Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google, via video conference.
Discussions covered a wide range of topics, including the important role of digital skills as a driving force for a sustainable and inclusive economic recovery and the opportunity for Luxembourg, as a digital pioneer, to take the lead on digital transformation.
In order to support Luxembourg's objective of continuing to be a digital leader and to contribute to strengthening resilience in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai announced the launch of a partnership in the field of online training. Licences for "Google Career Certificates" will be made available to allow job seekers to improve their digital knowledge, among other things. They will be distributed through the University of Luxembourg Competence Centre (ULCC), with the support of the ADEM employment agency, the National Reception Office (Office national de l'accueil - ONA) and the National Social Inclusion Office (Office national d'inclusion sociale - ONIS). In addition, licences for the "Grow with Google" programme will allow small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to train more in electronic commerce and marketing, through the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce and its House of Entrepreneurship.
Prime Minister Xavier Bettel highlighted that “Luxembourg is delighted with this cooperation in the field of digital training. This is further proof of the government's relentless commitment to sustainable and inclusive digital transformation. Luxembourg has been able to create in recent years an environment very favourable to digital innovation, without ever forgetting the human aspect, which we put at the centre of our reflections on digitalisation".
Finally, Luxembourg's Prime Minister and Sundar Pichai touched on other topics such as the data centre in Bissen, which is currently following administrative procedures, as well as the interest of both parties in analysing other project opportunities to be developed.
