SMEs, administrative simplification, craft and retail

These days, SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises) play a driving role in boosting economic growth and job creation.

The SME sector in Luxembourg comprises some 40,000 companies engaged in craft and trade activities, businesses operating in the hotels, restaurants and catering sector, and certain liberal professions. It currently employs nearly 216,000 people, accounting for just over 67% of the domestic workforce.

Over the last ten years, SMEs in Luxembourg have created over 50,000 new jobs. SMEs also provide a major part of the vocational training, and make an effective contribution to the strengthening of our economic fabric and expansion of the national labour market.

Objectives

The Ministry of the Economy's General Directorate for SMEs, Administrative Simplification, Craft and Retail (Direction générale PME, simplification administrative, artisanat et commerce) is the go-to point of contact for small and medium-sized enterprises. It operates in five main areas:

• the business permit;
• business practices and business development, for example via the Business Registry (cadastre de commerce) and the retail report published by the National Observatory for SMEs (Observatoire national des PME);
• the simplification of administrative procedures for businesses; 
• the digitisation of SMEs, e.g. via the platform Letzshop; 
• sustainable development of SMEs.

Resources

The General Directorate for SMEs, Administrative Simplification, Craft and Retail is continually seeking to optimise its working procedures and to provide an excellent service to businesses. A crucial step in this process is the ISO9001 certification awarded to it for its quality management system.

In addition, it has at its disposal, with the High-Level Committee for SMEs (Haut comité en faveur des PME) and the action plan in favour of SMEs (plan d'action en faveur des PME), various instruments enabling it to work towards a horizontal approach in favour of SMEs.

Financial aid for SMEs

The Ministry of the Economy offers SMEs a wide range of aid measures, including: 

• Support for first-time business start-ups
• Aid for young businesses
• Investment aid
• Aid for miscellaneous investments
• Fit 4 Sustainability programme
• SME Packages - Sustainability
• SME Packages – Service
• SME Packages – Digital
• Fit for Digital
• Aid for consultancy services for SMEs
• Aid for participation in a trade fair
• Aid schemes granted to remedy the damages caused by natural disasters
• Starter Kit RSE

You will find all the types of support offered by the Ministry of the Economy in the section "services to businesses".

You can also consult Klimapaktfirbetriber.lu, a website containing comprehensive information about all the measures available to support businesses in their decarbonisation and energy transition efforts.