Luxembourg's development cooperation - Annual report 2013

Luxembourg pursues a clear policy of untied aid; however, this does not exclude the involvement of Luxemburgish enterprises in cooperation projects if they have a specific added value to contribute or they are simply more competitive in tenders. This is particularly the case in the fields of new information and communication technologies (ICT), modern technologies in the environmental field and also in the financial sector.

In Vietnam, a country with an intermediate income and from which traditional cooperation is being gradually withdrawn, Luxembourg is committed to supporting the financial sector, especially through the Financial Technology Transfer Agency (ATTF). Furthermore, some programmes with the ATTF are implemented in most of our partner countries in order to maintain sustainable links with Luxembourg’s financial centre even after the current cooperation programmes have ended. Vietnam’s green growth strategy, which Luxembourg supports, should also provide opportunities for innovative enterprises in the environmental and renewable energy fields.

In Burkina Faso, Luxembourg is supporting the government in a major project for the creation of a national agency for the promotion of ICT and a state IT centre, linking together the various provinces to the capital via a satellite network. This project is being carried out in collaboration with the company SES.

Finally, Luxembourg’s development cooperation is encouraging Luxemburgish enterprises to become involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, especially in cooperation with NGOs. There are some very striking examples in our partner countries. In Central America, Luxembourg is supporting the regional umbrella organisation of national associations for corporate social responsibility (INTEGRARSE) to integrate and strengthen corporate social responsibility in this region.