IBCL Celebrates 15 Years of India-Luxembourg Cooperation

On Wednesday 23 October 2024, the Indian Business Chamber of Luxembourg (IBCL) celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of its growing partnership between India and Luxembourg, at an evening event held in Deloitte, Luxembourg-Gasperich.

The evening event was attended by approximately 200 people and offered key corporate leaders and stakeholders the opportunity to share insights into their experiences and discuss future opportunities for collaboration and growth between the two countries. Guest of honour at the event was Saurabh Kumar, Ambassador of India to the European Union, Belgium and Luxembourg.

Basil Sommerfeld, Partner and Chair of the Supervisory Board at Deloitte, gave the welcoming address in which he spoke of the cooperation between the two nations and of how the countries work together across many sectors.

This was followed by IBCL President Himanshu Upadhyay, who spoke of IBCL's promotion of Luxembourg-India business relations over the past fifteen years and of the road ahead for bilateral cooperation. The importance of the three pillars on which IBCL focuses: Network, Dialogue and Advocacy was discussed and collaboration between the various Chambers of Commerce in Luxembourg to create opportunities was mentioned.

Ambassador Saurabh Kumar presented "India-Luxembourg, the Road Ahead" and discussed three areas that should be considered: where India is headed, the Luxembourg-India relationship and where more can be done. He stressed how India's young and growing population can offer the opportunity to lead India into becoming a good business proposition. He spoke of the need for legislative measures that are business friendly, for example harmonising the tax regime and bankruptcy law. He advised India to take a medium to long term perspective on the economy. Ambassador Kumar spoke of meeting Grand Duke Henri when he presented his credentials to him, and of how impressed he was at Grand Duke Henri’s depth of information on India. A planned trip to India by the Grand Duke had been cancelled due to the Covid pandemic and Ambassador Kumar would like if this could be reorganised.

The deepening of trade and economic ties between the countries was stressed. Green/Clean energy, the Digital Domain and the Financial Services sector were all discussed as being the main areas in which the countries could work together in the future.

A Q&A with the Ambassador followed. Ambassador Kumar, through his role as EU ambassador, agreed he is not often in Luxembourg, but his significant work to improve India-EU relations will in turn have a positive effect on India-Luxembourg ties. The potential influence of India's Gift City on Luxembourg-India ties was discussed as was the conclusion of FDA trade. (Gift City is a central business district under construction in the Gandhinagar district of India).

A lively roundtable discussion on the topic "Celebrating 15 Years of Luxembourg-India Synergy: Charting the Future of Strategic Business Collaborations" followed, moderated by Luc Brucher, Partner at Deloitte Luxembourg, with panellists Nishith Nirav, Head of India and South Korea Business Development at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE); Paul Schonenberg, Chairman and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg (AMCHAM), Dr Gaston Trauffler, Head of Industrial Policy at FEDIL (Luxembourg’s industry federation) and Nidhi Bhargava, Director at Deloitte Luxembourg.

Topics discussed during the roundtable session included areas in which to create opportunities for India in the future. According to the panellists, India's skilled workforce can contribute to the strong dynamic environment in Luxembourg, as Luxembourg on its own cannot fulfil the needs of the financial services sector. Challenges in this area were also debated.

The requirements to attract Indian nationals to move to Luxembourg were considered, as was the role of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange in fulfilling a sustainable market and to develop and facilitate investment opportunities. The advantages of Luxembourg's position in the centre of Europe was highlighted as this opens a larger consumer market for Indian companies.

Some success stories were shared prior to the open house Q&A session which drew interesting questions from audience members.

The panel were asked by the moderator what three words they would use to characterise Luxembourg-India success. Answers ranged from people, technology, goods, dialogue and partnership between the countries as well as the need for investment. 

The need for dialogue and communication was stressed during this Q&A session. The effect of EU regulations on attracting Indian companies to Luxembourg and the EU was debated. Regulations including climate risk reporting and child labour laws are rightly strict in the EU. This leads to increased manufacturing costs and is not always understood by the consumer market. EU regulations and reporting obligations lead to transparency within the sector but this regulatory burden must be solved in a competitive manner.

IBCL President Himanshu Upadhyay concluded the evening by thanking the Ambassador and panellists for their contributions. He introduced IBCL’s next event which will be hosted with EY: "Navigating the Intersection of Profit and purpose: Technology’s Role in Shaping the Future" on Thursday 7 November 2024 at EY, Luxembourg-Kirchberg.

The evening finished with a networking dinner.