Dear AmCham members, partners, and dear friends,
Thank you for opening and reading this 210th issue of our AmCham.lu newsletter! We hope you had a good pause over the 3-day weekend!
In our newsletter of last week, Angela Nickel and I published a thoughtful historical analysis essay which explained that Luxembourg has historically struggled with insufficient housing for the entirety of the industrial revolution. As an additional point, we mentioned that less than 2% of residential construction is 30 square meters or less single occupancy housing while Luxembourg has the highest divorce rate in Europe, the age for getting married keeps getting older and the single portion of our population is exploding within all age groups, clearly creating increased demand for single occupancy housing with all indications indicating this change in demographic demand is apparently being totally ignored by governmental authorities. Please find a copy of that article republished HERE.
At this same time, the LuxTimes published an article saying that 90% of the money transferred to communes for housing development is spent on infrastructure rather than on building actual housing units. Drive through almost any village or commune and you will see new school buildings, sports fields and centers and community centers… but almost no single person occupancy housing for the new just-starting-their-career school graduates, the newly divorced working employees, the newly single older people who have lost their spouses.
Please give us your feedback on this by writing to Paul@amcham.lu
Last by not least, I also came across an article which should attract your attention; What happens when a country gets shut out of global trade? Please see the full video HERE
This week our feature interview is with Daniel Stoica, CEO of RMT Labs, a dynamic high-tech expat led company moving up from being a start-up into the scale-up phase. This is a great company of hard working, smart people with an interesting and engaging story to tell. Enjoy the interview!
Our Finance Minister, Gilles Roth gave a great speech last week at the launch event for the inauguration of the new Cisco Luxembourg headquarters in Hesperange. Cisco is a really solid American financial services company with over 30 years of successful residence in Luxembourg. I am happy they are an AmCham member company and wish them all continued success!
Our recipe of French toast with apples is a simple classic to enjoy. I like mine with Sri Lanka Cinnamon and Vermont maple syrup!
Warm regards and very best wishes,
Paul Schonenberg
Chairman and CEO
AmCham.lu