Every two years, the International Chamber of Commerce organises the World Chambers Competition, which rewards innovative projects undertaken by chambers around the world. This year, the Luxembourg chamber of commerce and its House of Entrepreneurship won in the Best Resilience Project category thanks to the #ReAct programme, launched in April 2020.
In the spring of 2020, the Chamber of Commerce launched, via the House of Entrepreneurship, #ReAct, a business support programme. The aim is to support businesses affected by the crisis in order to help them both with their various administrative procedures and to better prepare for their recovery.
“In normal times, we provide companies with a basis for legal, tax, accounting, strategic advice, etc. Then, as we are not meant to compete with our members, we direct the companies to other companies whose job it is. With #ReAct, the opposite has happened. Our members have voluntarily made services available to businesses in distress by providing their accountants, lawyers, consultants and others. We saw a great deal of solidarity among our members,” explained , Director General of the Chamber of Commerce.
The World Chambers Competition jury was also attracted by the very Luxembourg approach to the programme and more generally to what has been done to help the most affected businesses to become more resilient.
When I watched his presentation, I knew that we could only win. Tom Baumert ended his mission with the Chamber of Commerce in the best possible way.
“Beyond the #ReAct programme, the jury rewarded the Chamber of Commerce for having worked closely with the government authorities to define the best possible support for businesses. It was essential to have feedback from the field and this work has not always been as well done in other countries as here. With the Ministry of the Economy and the Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Businesses, we were really able to put forward the Luxembourg model to find solutions and put in place aid for businesses,” said Thelen.
Another element that seems to have made the difference in the competition is the setting up of a helpline within the Chamber of Commerce. “I think that the last of the three pillars of our programme also contributed to our success. It may be a detail, but having the helpline within the Chamber of Commerce has taken the burden off the teams of the Ministry of the Economy, who have been able to concentrate on paying out aid to companies,” said the Chamber of Commerce's director.
In conclusion, Thelen did not fail to congratulate the work of Tom Baumert as head of the House of Entrepreneurship and who represented the Chamber of Commerce at the 12th World Chambers Competition in Dubai. “When I watched his presentation, I knew we could only win. Tom Baumert has finished his mission at the Chamber of Commerce in the best possible way (since 1 December he has been the director of the CLC, editor's note). He carried the project perfectly, while there were also some very good projects in the competition.”
This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.