Secretary of state for the economy Francine Closener (LSAP) said on Friday that the finance marks a 27% increase compared to the previous five years. Among the initiatives supporting SMEs, she highlighted the letzshop.lu e-commerce platform, helping small commercial entities to have a stronger online presence.

The list of achievements included the €60m set aside to support a diversification of the tourism sector from 2018 to 2022, as well as the €440 m out of €1.5b which had been paid in aid to companies for private investments in Luxembourg during the time the coalition from 2014-2018.

Closener, along with deputy prime minister Etienne Schneider (LSAP) recounted other initiatives that emerged during their government’s legislative period, notably the creation of the creative industries cluster, to strengthen visibility and innovation in the sector, and a wood cluster.

There were several initiatives to diversify the economy during the 2013-2018 legislature, minister Schneider pointed out, such as the implementation of the spaceresources.lu initiative, the high-performance computing project, aimed at creating a big data competence centre in Luxembourg and a supercomputer, and the Rifkin strategy. The latter, which is referred to as the “third industrial revolution” aims to make the country more economically and environmentally sustainable through supporting smart transport and construction, for example.

With the legislative elections scheduled for 14 October, voters can rest assured that “the country and businesses are well prepared to meet tomorrow's challenges, especially those related to the digitisation of the economy,” Schneider said.