STEP Benelux, the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, landed something of a coup for its November luncheon.

The committee had invited Xavier Bettel to talk about “Strategy for the development of Luxembourg City: challenges and opportunities”, and was delighted when the future prime minister of Luxembourg agreed to honour his commitment despite a busy schedule of coalition negotiations.

Bettel looked back at his two-year tenure as mayor, but also forward to projects such as the new Royal Hamilius space designed by the office of Sir Norman Foster, the Ban de Gasperich development and the challenge of creating affordable housing for young families in the city.

Bettel also looked to the future government his DP party was in the process of forming with coalition partners and said that priority would be give to balancing the budget--something he said the DP and Déi Gréng had achieved, without sacrificing infrastructure investment, at the Ville de Luxembourg thanks to a thorough screening process of the expenditure of each department.