La Pologne en Luxembourg

In the picture, starting from the left: Piotr Wojtczak – the Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to the Grand Dutchy of Luxembourg, Franz Fayot – the Minister of Economy of the Grand Dutchy of Luxembourg, Cindy Tereba – the Director for International Affairs of the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, Paul Schmit – the Ambassador of the Grand Dutchy of Luxembourg to the Republic Poland.

 

The subject of this year's Conference was the Future of Logistics – Digital Strategy and Initiatives in Luxembourg and Poland. This edition was special as it took place after a one-year interval caused by the COVID-19 outbreak and, as a result, in the year when we are celebrating the 100th anniversary of Polish-Luxembourgish diplomatic relations. This anniversary provided an opportunity to take stock of many years of the bilateral economic cooperation.

The conference was opened by the Ambassador Piotr Wojtczak, who highlighted the abundance of achievements made over the last 100 years, especially in the economic field. He pointed out how serious the current challenges and threats are, both on the external EU borders and those resulting from the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.

In his letter to the participants, the Minister of Economic Development and Technology of the Republic of Poland, Piotr Nowak, stressed that Poland and Luxembourg have a reason to be proud, bearing in mind that since Poland's accession to the European Union in 2004 our trade turnover has increased by 270%. During the last decade the trade exchanges between our countries have more than doubled and, although 2020 impacted our economies, Polish-Luxembourgish business relations have revived, allowing the bilateral trade to increase by 25% by August 2021.

In his speech the Minister of Economy of the Grand Dutchy, Fraz Fayot, pointed out that Poland is one of the most important economic partners of Luxembourg and our cooperation in the field of logistics has already borne a concrete fruit. An example of it is an intermodal train connection between Bettembourg and Swarzędz which had been launched before the pandemic.

As a part of panel discussions, experts from Poland, Luxembourg and the European Commission exchanged their views on the contribution of a dual-hub strategy for the transport network between Poland and Luxembourg in the context of the European Green Deal as well as challenges for logistics and supply chain.

The Business Conference is a joint initiative of the Luxembourg-Poland Chamber of Commerce, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Luxembourg and the Embassy of the Grand Dutchy of Luxembourg in Warsaw. It takes place alternately in Poland and Luxembourg. Organized for the first time in 2018, it is an annual international conference focusing on the bilateral cooperation between Luxembourg and Poland. The conference aims at bringing together experts, professionals, researchers and other market players from a specific industry. The previous editions were dedicated to the FinTech & RegTech (2018, Luxembourg) and the Partnership in Space Business (2019, Warsaw).