In a context of multiple crises facing businesses, we invited the various Luxembourg political parties and business leaders representing all the member sectors of the Chamber of Commerce to a debate on 25 October. The aim of this first meeting was to present and discuss the concerns raised by the 8th edition of the Barometer of the Economy, a representative survey which collected the feelings of more than 600 Luxembourg companies, while allowing the political representatives to provide initial elements of solutions in the light of their programme.
Indeed, the thematic part of this autumn's edition of the Barometer was devoted to the 2023 elections, thus complementing an economic survey showing business confidence at half-mast and activity severely hampered by the successive crises. Business confidence in the future of the Luxembourg economy over the next two to three years has fallen sharply compared to the previous six months, to an unprecedented level and above all below that recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic.
With regard to the 2023 elections, three priorities stand out for the government ending its term of office and the one starting in a year's time.
Companies still feel largely overwhelmed by the numerous administrative formalities, multiple information points and authorisation requests to be made to the various ministries.
Firstly, energy cost containment takes a prominent place as a strategic issue and as an urgent need to be addressed in order to change the daily life of businesses. The statement "We need to move towards resource independence at European level" received strong support. The facilitation, simplification and acceleration of administrative procedures is a second strong issue.
Companies still feel largely overwhelmed by the numerous administrative formalities, multiple information points and authorisation requests to be made to the various ministries. They are asking for these procedures to be simplified, digitised and for information to be increasingly grouped together, a task to which we are working more and more each year at the Chamber of Commerce, in particular through the services offered by its House of Entrepreneurship.
Finally, increasing flexibility in the labour market (work organisation, teleworking, etc.) rounds off this list of priorities for the next legislature.
Other issues at the heart of the challenges businesses face include the decline in profitability, the orientation and attractiveness of the workforce, the succession of automatic indexations and their impact on labour costs, the fight against climate change and sustainable development, mobility and housing. Each of these themes will have to be the subject of new policies to sustainably improve the competitiveness and attractiveness of the Luxembourg economy and the prosperity of the country's population.
The actions of the Chamber of Commerce to contribute to the electoral debate have only just begun. 2023 will see the publication of booklets presenting proposals aimed at providing a concrete response to all these challenges. Their publication will be accompanied by a number of events, to encourage the necessary dialogue between economic and political actors in this complex and crucial period for the future.