A very nice event organised by the Italian Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce (linkedin link) in conjunction with the Italian Embassy in Luxembourg (linkedin link).
Yesterday 20.03.2019 in Luxembourg in the grand settings of the Bank of Luxembourg auditorium.
Several speakers took their turn in explaining what makes a city smart. Including our representative for the Benelux area.
Well, it turns out that to make a city smart you must be able to attract smart people. At least this is what we think!
That touches upon design, infrastructure, domotics and internet bandwith, public transport, schooling and even the favourable tax and cultural environment for the expatriates hired by multinationals to set foot and settle in a Smart City.
Luxembourg is way ahead on this. Take note other big cities in Europe.
40% of the circa 600.000 residents in the Grand-Duchy are foreign white collars with a high level of instruction and an even greater spending power. In Luxembourg City alone the percentage is above 60%. A truly multicultural dynamic environment, which finds no equals in an European context, except perhaps London.
They are attracted to this nice little country by the high standard of living, beautiful uncontaminated nature, quality of public services, cultural offerings and of course by the high standards of residential accommodation.
So much so that many choose to stay and buy homes in Luxembourg. This in turn has fuelled a real estate boom for good quality housing in line with the most advanced technologies.
In short, smart cities attract smart people and smart people make cities even smarter.
We were lucky to have the chance to say a thing or two at this event, which was very well organised and registered the participation of over 100 delegates from the banking, financial, construction and real estate sector in Luxembourg.
Well done Embassy of Italy and Italian Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, you make us proud.