The AmCham Story

In the Fall of 1994, the United States Ambassador to Luxembourg, the honorable Clay Constantinou, invited the leaders of the American business community in Luxembourg to his residence.

He advised these company leaders of his concern that they needed to prepare themselves for a more complicated world in which government access to the Luxembourg Prime Minister and key government ministers and officials would become more difficult. He likewise advised them that they needed to start to devote more attention to matters in Brussels as the European Commission and other pan-European governing entities gain more power and influence.

To better position themselves to successfully function in this new world, he urged them to establish an American Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg with a pan-European affiliation linked to other American Chambers of Commerce across Europe and with the US Chamber of Commerce in the United States.

The US Companies listened, and in 1996 formed an American Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg, affiliated with the US Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C., and linked with the other AmChams across Europe. They committed to four pillars of activities to support and provide services to the members and broader society:

1. Networking (in the English language) to connect members with each other and with decision makers in Luxembourg (and elsewhere) for mutual benefit.
2. Gathering and sharing (within the membership) information concerning how Luxembourg works: Understanding the rules of the game on how things work, what are the objectives behind the rules and policies as well as what to do, how to do it, with whom to do it…who to contact and what to say…who not to contact and what not to say.
3. Problem-solving: identifying problem areas where current business policies and practices are not the best they can be… identifying alternative practices and solutions, either as a result of internal brainstorming and analysis or by the discovery of alternative solutions from other jurisdictions which could be brought into practice here in Luxembourg to the benefit of companies and the broader society.
4. Engaging and lobbying with the government by communicating the concerns and wishes of the AmCham community members and working with the government to find solutions.

As a result of these four pillars of focus, AmCham Luxembourg has grown over the years to become the largest private Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg. We are an organization representing almost 350member companies representing a demographic of 30% US Companies, 20% purely domestic Luxembourg companies, and 50% international companies from around the world. We are broadly international while being also primarily locally focused. We are connected within the American Chambers of Commerce in Europe (ACE) to a pan-European network of like-minded English-speaking business networking organizations and connected likewise with the US Chamber of Commerce, the largest business organization in the world. We are unique and optimized to serve our members!

Our weekly digital Newsletter aggregates all the government and economic news about subsidies and policy issues (in the English language to fit the needs of our Anglophone audience). We are proud to inform and touch approximately 10,000 business leaders and employees every week.

We focus our efforts on the economic recovery and lobbying the Luxembourg government in order to make sure the voice of the international community is heard and considered by the government officials as they make and implement policies and decisions. We are concerned by the challenges ahead and believe there is much work to be done…  We are committed to work hard to support and defend the needs of our constituency!

To our members, we say: thank you for allowing us to serve and support you!

To the ecosystem of the Luxembourg government, society, and economy, we say: Thank you for allowing AmCham Luxembourg to represent our constituents and for listening when we tell you our members’ needs, concerns, and recommendations. Thank you for including us and our members as partners to make Luxembourg the best it can be… for all of us and for the broader society!

To those who are not yet members, we say: join us!

To all, we say: Together we can face the challenges of both today and tomorrow, find solutions to overcome these challenges and make the world better and more successful for our shareholders, our fellow employees, and for all the inhabitants in the ecosystem of Luxembourg.

In line with the Luxembourg philosophy motto, we say: Let’s make it happen!