Luxembourg Communications Minister, Mr. Jean-Louis Schiltz, announced on January 17th that Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, has confirmed that it will finally settle its European Headquarters in Luxembourg after a year of waiting.

The big news at the end of 2004 was the announcement that Amazon, the world largest online retailer, was looking to settle its European headquarters in Luxembourg. Now, over one year later - it is finally living up to its promise. Possibly as soon as summer 2006, Amazon will take up its operational business in Luxembourg, as announced by Jean-Louis Schiltz, Luxembourg Minister Delegate for Communications, on RTL television 17th January. As an added boost to the local Luxembourg economy, Amazon will also be bringing all of its sales and service activities and well as the operational units for its European websites. Minister Schiltz said that only Amazon's large warehouses would remain in their present locations.

In his statement, Schiltz said that Amazon has based their decision on a number of attractive conditions offered by Luxembourg. Factors including Luxembourg"s central situation in Europe, good business climate, multilingual capabilities, efficient and fast administrative channels, political stability, and interesting fiscal opportunities, proved decisive factors in the choice of location.

This latest announcement is positive reinforcement for the Luxembourg government"s efforts to attract foreign businesses and develop more diversity within the Luxembourg economy. Indeed, Luxembourg is beginning to take on all the appearances of an information superhighway hub, even if the main attraction for some companies is the fiscal environment.

After eBay"s much talked about purchase of Luxembourg-based Skype Technologies SA (the world's largest provider of Internet telephony) in September 2005, local authorities were assured that Skype"s official headquarters would remain in the Grand Duchy. It is optimistically speculated that Skype"s business will expand even further with the local economy reaping some of the benefits.

Vint Cerf, considered to be one of the fathers of the Internet, is a representative of Google, the world's largest Internet search engine, who participated in 2005 in the ICANN conference in Luxembourg . Last year, a Luxembourg Minister met with former US vice-president Al Gore who is currently active as special senior advisor for Google. Add this to the presence of AOL in Luxembourg and the reinforcement of Cisco"s Luxembourg office in September of 2005, and it is evident that with such close business connections a situation could develop offering Luxembourg plumb possibilities.

In 2005, Schiltz commissioned a study that will examine Luxembourg"s situation vis a vis the information superhighway. Since then, an initial report has been delivered, which the Minister and his co-workers are using as a basis to undertake the first measures to improve the Grand Duchy"s IT infrastructures. According to Schiltz, the connections of the country to international data streams are relatively good, but due to rising demand there are some deficits. This is particularly true in light of price structures and it has been recommended that improvements towards more competitive pricing must take place.

The Luxembourg government is counting on the creation of new jobs as one of the benefits of Amazon's move, but Schiltz did not specify any numbers. Likewise, it has not yet been decided where Amazon will establish itself in Luxembourg. No new building has been planned at the moment. In the meantime there is considered to be sufficient free office space for Amazon to make their move.