- General Information on Luxembourg
- Luxembourg in India
- Prime Business Location
- Tourism
- Consular Assistance
- Visas to Luxembourg
- In the Press
- The Telegraph-12/01/2010 : Wine in demand
- Statesman News Service-11/01/2010 : Luxembourg invites Indian companies
- The Telegraph-13/01/2010 : Bengal taps Mittal for steel plant
- Indlaw News- 14/01/2010 : Luxembourg, Pharma offers trade opportunities to Indian companies
- Economic Times- 13/01/2010 : Luxembourg leaves call on Jharkhand to LNM
- Outlook Traveller- February 2008- 48 hours in Luxembourg
- Financial Express Special issue- 23/06/2009- Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Broadening ties with India
- Minister Jeannot Krecké's Economic Mission to India in the Luxembourg Press
New Delhi > Prime Business Location >
Prime Business Location
An attractive legal and business framework
Ample opportunities for Indian companies in Luxembourg
Significant progress in the bilateral legal framework to facilitate investment
Business Links
Publications
- An attractive legal and business framework
Located in the heart of Europe, Luxembourg is a gateway to the European market with more than 500 million consumers. Due to its political and social stability, skilled and multilingual workforce, state-of-the-art infrastructures, excellent connectivity to markets, favorable legal environment and attractive tax climate, Luxembourg offers an exceptional range of assets and opportunities for doing business in Europe. Luxembourg thus can be the ideal base for Indian companies who want to establish a permanent base within the European Union.
For several decades, the Luxembourg government has been implementing a vigorous economic development and diversification policy which has made it possible to successfully reshape the country’s economic structure. From a steel-based economy, Luxembourg has developed into a world-renowned international financial centre and prime business location. Promoting the financial centre is an exercise of utmost importance for the country. However the country also needs to diversify its economy, in order to escape too heavy dependence on its sole banking industry which makes up for 30% op the GDP. Diversification is of particular importance today, in these days where the prospect of a deep global economic crisis is making the headlines. Sectorial restructuring demands a pro-active policy. The government thus puts emphasis on developing new sectors such as ICT, e-commerce and media, automotive components, materials and plastics, logistics, health and environmental technologies.
Today, the results of this policy are clear: Luxembourg is home to best-in-class companies playing on a global level. ArcelorMittal in steel, Cargolux in air freight, SES in satellites, and RTL Group in media are today leaders in their fields and are headquartered and/or come from Luxembourg origins.
Active investment promotion brought many international companies from Asia, North America and numerous other countries to Luxembourg, which they chose as a base for their European operations. Most of them have set up production units. Goodyear, Delphi, Dupont de Nemours from the United States, Fanuc from Japan, Mittal (Ispat) and Tata from India as well as Sam Hwa Steel and Hyosung from Korea – are only some examples. Recently, the Grand-Duchy has become home to the ‘stars’ of the ICT sector: AOL, Amazon, eBay, Skype, PayPal, Digital River, Napster and iTunes are household names that elected Luxembourg as European headquarters. A particular emphasis is put by the government on new technologies.
In the coming years, the focus will be directed at encouraging capital and technology intensive activities; promoting research and development. Luxembourg is constantly looking for promising entrepreneurs and innovative ideas. Powerful measures are launched to support them, such as the dedicated ecotechnology cluster and the favourable intellectual property law (passed in 2007, it provides for an 80% exemption of certain types of intellectual property-related income). The government also fosters the establishment of knowledge-based companies and actively searches abroad to find the required talent.
-------------------------------------------------------
- Ample opportunities for Indian companies in Luxembourg
A growing number of Indian companies are finding their way to Luxembourg. Major players such as Tata Consultancy services have established their centre of excellence in Luxembourg and are rapidly expanding their number of employees.
The future holds important potential, as there are significant complementarities between the Indian and the Luxembourg economies.
Many Indian companies need a solid logistical base in Europe to distribute their products. Located in the heart of Europe, with excellent telecommunications and logistics infrastructure, Luxembourg is the ideal hub to distribute goods throughout the entire European single market. The presence of Cargolux has made the Luxembourg airport the 7th largest cargo port in the world in terms of tonnage. The road and rail links are good too and the government created a multimodal logistics hub in Bettembourg. But the clincher for many are the low taxes and the flexibility with which they are applied. Non-EU suppliers charge their EU customers a unique VAT rate of 15%, which is the lowest VAT rate in the EU. Firms can also avoid pre-financing VAT and do not have to tie-up capital. Nearly all other EU countries ask for tax payments or require cash guarantees. Add to this moderate income taxes and firms are on the winner.
An important field offering space for increased cooperation is the IT sector. Software applications play a key role in financial management and large amounts of money are devoted each year by the IT departments of the big Luxembourg banks to stay at the edge of technology. Indian firms are experts in this field and will find ample opportunities in Luxembourg.
For more information on Information and Communication Technology click on Luxembourg for ICT .
The financial sector in general is one of the most promising fields. Luxembourg is home to the second largest investment fund industry in the world. Luxembourg based investment funds are among the main capital channels to emerging economies all over the world. It holds a very significant market share in portfolio investments in India.
Being listed on the Luxembourg stock exchange through global depository receipts, Indian companies have access to the huge euro-zone capital markets. Luxembourg is number 1 for GDRs: in excess of 100 were set up in Luxembourg by Indian companies and are now listed on our Stock Exchange. Indian companies tap funds globally through Luxembourg, which they prefer to all other stock exchanges.
Luxembourg is keen on having Indian banks open in Luxembourg. Though there are 150 foreign owned banks in Luxembourg already none from India have yet decided to open a branch. Opening in Luxembourg would give them easy access to the whole of our single market, allow them to tap the expertise on mutual funds and gain from the proximity to the European Investment Bank, one of the biggest infrastructure lenders in the world, which is headquartered in Luxembourg. Indian banks have to be in a position to tell their customers: "I'm in the euro zone, at the heart of markets and opportunities. I know what is happening there and you will benefit from our local expertise".
For more information on the financial sector click on Luxembourg - the international hub for financial services
--------------------------------------------------------
- Significant progress in the bilateral legal framework to facilitate investments
A bilateral agreement to avoid double taxation has be signed in June 2008 between the two countries. The Luxembourg Parliament officially adopted the text on May 6th 2009. After completion of the notification process by both countries, the treaty will enter into force on January 1st 2010 for Luxembourg and on April 1st for India. The agreement will boost the bilateral trade relations and stimulate the flow of capital, technology, and personnel from India to Luxembourg and vice-versa.
Luxembourg also has concluded negotiations with India on a Social Security Agreement, which is soon to be signed. It will facilitate worker’s mobility between our two countries by creating a number of flexibilities. Most notably it will allow expat workers to keep their pension rights when they go back to their home countries.
-------------------------------------------------------
· Business Links
-
Ministère de l’Economie
http://www.eco.public.lu -
Board of Economic Development (BED)
http://www.bed.public.lu/ - Luxembourg for Business
http://www.luxembourgforbusiness.lu
-
Luxembourg for Finance
http://www.lff.lu/ - Luxembourg for ICT
http://www.luxembourgforict.lu/en/
-
Luxembourg Stock Exchange
http://www.bourse.lu -
Department of Maritime Affairs (Commissariat aux Affaires Maritimes)
http://www.cam.etat.lu/en/default.htm - Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce
http://www.cc.lu/index.php?page=54
- Indian Business Chamber of Luxembourg
Cluster for logistics
http://www.clusterforlogistics.lu
-------------------------------------------------------
Business publications
|
