Luxembourg, South Korea to Establish Smart Green Business Centre

Luxembourg's Ministry of the Economy has announced the establishment of a "Smart Green Business Centre" (SGBC) in the Grand Duchy by ASEIC, a Korean eco-innovation centre.

Promoting sustainable growth and mitigating climate change are major priorities in both Luxembourg and South Korea. Cleantech is one of the priority sectors of Luxembourg's data-driven innovation strategy and the South Korean government is actively supporting companies in the fields of smart mobility and green technologies. In this context, ASEIC, an eco-innovation centre under South Korea's Ministry of SMEs and Startups, is setting up the SGBC in Luxembourg.

ASEIC facilitates cooperation between Europe and Asia. In 2017, the centre started to analyse Denmark and Luxembourg as possible locations for its European centre. ASEIC visited Luxembourg several times. The contributions provided by Luxinnovation, the national innovation agency, and the support of the project expressed by the Korean and Luxembourg Prime Ministers when they met in 2018 led ASEIC to ultimately choose Luxembourg.

"Once SGBC has been established in Luxembourg, it will help promising Korean SMEs and start-ups expand their markets to Europe through Luxembourg", explained Younhee Kim, Executive Director of the Luxembourg Trade & Investment Office in Seoul who has actively supported the initiative since the beginning. "It can also help European companies find projects in south-east Asia".

SGBC will be set up in the context of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by South Korea's Minister of SMEs and Startups, Young-sun Park, and Luxembourg's Minister of the Economy, Franz Fayot. Managed by the Asia-Europe Meeting SMEs Innovation Centre and supported by Luxinnovation, its aim will be to facilitate green and digital collaborative projects between Luxembourg and Korean SMEs and startups with a view to identify and develop successful green business models. It will also facilitate joint research, technology transfer, marketing cooperation, the creation of joint ventures and the organisation of networking events.

Minister Franz Fayot commented: "I am proud that we signed this MoU aiming at establishing a smart Green Business Centre Europe in Luxembourg to facilitate sustainable and digital collaborative projects among SMEs and start-ups of our two countries with a common goal to promote green innovation and growth".

Minister Young-sun Park added: "Luxembourg is the world's number one powerhouse in terms of per capita GDP and labour productivity by developing connectivity and innovation capabilities with neighbouring countries. With Luxembourg as a bridgehead, we expect that competent Korean SMEs and start-ups will expand to Europe".