Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Honourable Guests,
It is a great pleasure for me to take the floor in front of so many distinguished representatives of Brazil's business community. I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to join us so early in the morning and showing your interest in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and its economy.
You are representing Brazil's most successful players in finance and your daily work as business people can be an important contribution to the creation of new and tighter links and solidarities between countries, companies and individuals. This is the sense of today’s presentation of the opportunities the Luxembourg financial centre offers to entrepreneurs and private investors in Brazil.
I am not going to bother you with too much detail about Luxembourg’s recent history, but let me share with you just a few crucial elements of history to put Luxembourg’s position in Europe and in the world today into perspective. After the Second World War, the Luxembourg authorities were determined to engage the country in the emerging multilateral system and to become a founding member of all major international organization. Since the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in nineteen fifty two, all successive governments have been convinced of the necessity and benefits - not only in economic terms but mainly in terms of regional stability and peace - of an integrated and unified Europe. Hence, they have positioned Luxembourg at the forefront of the European integration. Luxembourg is today home, inter alia, to the judicial and some of the financial institutions of the European Community (namely the European Court of Justice, the European Investment Bank or the European Court of Auditors).
Luxembourg has a population of approximately five hundred thousand people. It is a polyglot population as non-nationals account for nearly forty two percent of the inhabitants and more than one hundred and fifty nationalities are cohabiting in Luxembourg. A more detailed breakdown by nationality shows that the Portuguese community (seventy four thousand Portuguese people are currently living in Luxembourg) is still by far the largest group accounting for nearly forty percent of the foreign population. Luxembourg is often considered a microcosm of Europe; a model of cultural and economic openness to the outside world: each working day some one hundred and twenty seven thousand commuters are crossing the borders to work in Luxembourg!
As a multilingual country and because of its strategic location "in-between" the French- and German-speaking cultures, a number a small and medium-sized businesses, active in the fields of multimedia and telecommunications, have been established in Luxembourg and constitute the cornerstone of an important audiovisual industry. As part of its proactive policy in this field, Luxembourg adopted a number of public support schemes to encourage the development of audiovisual production.
Honored Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In January, I spent a few days in Belo Horizonte, a city that symbolizes, better than any other, the long-standing ties between Brazil and Luxembourg. In the nineteen twenties, quite a number of Luxembourgers looked to Brazil for a better life and settled down in the State of Minais Gerais to contribute to the development of the nascent steel industry.
Despite the overwhelming importance of services, Luxembourg still maintains a diversified, strong and globally competitive industrial base which includes the automotive supplier industry (Delphi; Goodyear; Guardian), the chemical industry (Dupont), that of rubber or plastics to name but a few.
Let me briefly come back to the steel industry, because of the particular between our countries in this field: historically, the discovery of iron ore in Luxembourg provided the foundation for the development of a steel industry that dominated Luxembourg’s economic structure until the first oil crisis. In two thousand and one, three European companies, namely Arbed (from Luxembourg), Usinor (from France) and Aceralia (from Spain) merged to become the first steel company in the world: Arcelor.
In two thousand and six, Arcelor merged with Mittal to form the new global steel giant ArcelorMittal. It is worth highlighting in this context that ArcelorMittal has not only established its headquarter in Luxembourg, but the company still maintains important production sites there (totaling two point eight million tons of steel [in 2006] compared to eleven millions tons in Brazil) and is the most important company in Luxembourg in terms of employment. And I am delighted to notice that ArcelorMittal further expands its industrial activities in Brazil.
In order to increase trade volumes between our both countries, Luxembourg companies need become acquainted with the qualities of your products in order to import goods with the label "Made in Brazil". I am very pleased that the largest all-cargo airline at European level, Cargolux, has chosen to join us on this State Visit. Cargolux operates flights between Luxembourg and Brazil and is eager to contribute even further to enhance our bilateral trade.
You might ask yourself: what added value does a small land-locked state like Luxembourg provide to our country? Consider the following examples and you will see to what extent applications or products developed by Luxembourg based companies are part of your daily life : before coming to this meeting, you may have start your work day by checking your emails by using a broadband internet access provided by Star One, which is, as you are well aware, a partnership of Embratel and SES Global, the largest satellite operator - its satellite operating centre is based in Luxembourg; assuming you drove to this hotel, you and your family were protected by a number of airbags and other security devices - but did you know that the world leader (with a market share of thirty seven percent) of airbag sensors is IEE, a company founded and headquartered in Luxembourg? During this day and in order to keep in touch with friends or business partners throughout the world, you may use the network of Skype - once a start-up funded by a private equity company in Luxembourg and headquartered in Luxembourg!
As in all advanced economies, the services provide today the lion's share of our growth. The financial sector is without any doubt the crown jewels of our service sector. More than one hundred and fifty international banking institutions from twenty four different countries - I am particularly pleased to mention the three subsidiaries of Brazilian Banks -, Europe's largest investment fund industry and second in the world after the United States of America as well as a thriving Stock Exchange contribute for Luxembourg being one of the largest financial centres in the world. The total assets in the funds amount to more than two thousand billion euros (nearly five thousand billion Reals)!
Luxembourg was the first member state of the EU to implement the current EU legislation for investment funds (the so-called UCITS directive); funds set up according to these rules can be sold across Europe according to local marketing laws. We now have assembled an considerable experience and expertise in the management of these funds, thereby becoming a leader in the field. Nineteen percent of the funds registered in Luxembourg are managed by North American promoters; roughly eighteen percent by Swiss and another eighteen percent by German fund specialists.
Our financial sector's outstanding performance stems from the professional skills of more than forty thousand -often highly specialized -people working in that sector. I will not enter into the details now of all the reasons why Luxembourg should be your key partner in Europe for banking and investment. Mr Fernand Grulms, Member of the Executive Committee of the Luxembourg Bankers Association is much better placed than me to tell you about the business opportunities.
Dear Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Intangible factors like credibility, transparency, responsibility and personal commitment are key success factors in a globalized economy characterized by a growing degree of complexity.
This is why and in parallel with the vibrant expansion of the financial centre, the national regulatory authorities in Luxembourg recognized a long time ago the importance of preventing legitimate financial circuits and institutions from being misused for terrorist, criminal or illegal activities. They developed a sophisticated and reliable regulatory framework in strict accordance with international and European legislative standards. This framework allows banks to develop tailor-made and innovative solutions in a fast and cost-effective way and stay ahead of their competitors. A recent evaluation report of the IMF qualified the Luxembourg financial centre as, I quote: "solid, efficient and well-supervised", end of quotation. This equals the long-term vision that the Luxembourg government has of the financial centre.
To conclude, I am sure that this seminar provides an excellent occasion for professionals from our two countries to meet, to discuss new business opportunities and to lay the ground for an ever closer and mutually beneficial cooperation between Brazil and Luxembourg.
Let me now finish by warmly thanking the representatives of Belgalux; of the National Association of Investment Banks and of the Brazilian Federation of Banks for their efforts in organizing this event.
Dear Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The whole Luxembourg delegation will leave your great city with unforgettable memories. Our stay is certainly too short to see all the sights that Sao Paolo has to offer but I was heartened by the warm hospitality of its citizens. I hope to welcome at least some of you soon in Luxembourg:
- to discover its diversity of cultures,
- to see how a small state copes with the challenges and opportunities of globalisation,
- and last, but certainly not least, to find out why so many leading-edge companies have elected Luxembourg as a gateway to an European market of more than four hundred and fifty million customers!
Muito obrigado pela atenção !