On Wednesday 11 May 2016, Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, attended the 46th St. Gallen Symposium in Switzerland.

The St. Gallen Symposium is an annual, student-organised event amassing global Leaders of Today and Leaders of Tomorrow at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. It provides a platform for debate on topics of management, politics and civil society. Being held from 11 to 13 May 2016, this year's edition is bringing together around 800 decision-makers to discuss the topic "Growth - The Good, The Bad and the Ugly".

On this occasion, the Luxembourg Prime Minister delivered a speech to 350 people from economic, political and academic spheres on the challenges of economic growth. In his speech, Xavier Bettel gave a historical account of the phenomenon of economic growth, which only appeared with the industrial revolutions and which has been dominating our economic system since.

"Obviously we need growth to feed the economic, social and cultural," commented the Prime Minister. "The role of governments is to create an appropriate framework for balanced and equally distributed growth to avoid frictions likely to cause conflict. We must not question the concept of growth, we must question the way we asses and manage growth in the development of a global economy."

He then highlighted the connection between growth and progress, stating that the need to avoid slow progress is inherent in modern societies.

"Reliability, predictability and stability, along with pragmatism, innovation and responsiveness to new challenges were the key elements that are at the origin of the attractive environment which reigns in Luxembourg," the Prime Minister continued. "My government is working closely with players in the fields of business and industry to identify, understand and find solutions to these challenges."

According to Prime Minister Bettel, it is thanks to the partnership between politics and the private sector that Luxembourg has been able to create centres of excellence in areas such as ICT, FinTech and logistics.

In conclusion, the Prime Minister warned not to only focus on economic growth whilst ignoring human values: "Investments in culture, education and science are long-term important tools for sustainable economic growth."

 


Photo by ME