The 2018 calendar of the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (FSCC) was brimming with activities which aim was improving the French-Serbian economic cooperation and enabling chamber members to establish numerous contacts with partners in Serbia.
FSCC’S ACTIVITIES
The leading French-Serbian business network, the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce is an institution that brings together French companies in Serbia and Serbian companies that have trade relations with France or French companies. The Chamber is also a reliable partner to all companies from France which want to obtain infomation or to launch business in Serbia.
The FSCC’s main role is to enable access for its members to the network of companies with which they can exchange experiences and knowledge and to cooperate with other members in Serbia and the world. In order to promote the French-Serbian external trade and facilitate the communication between member companies, the FSCC organizes close to forty different events annually.
FRANCE – BALKANS BUSINESS FORUM
With the help of the French Embassy and the Federation of French External Trade Advisors, the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce and Business France organized the France-Balkans Business Forum that took place between 30th May and 1st June in Belgrade. The aim of the Forum was to promote regional cooperation and the Balkans as a business destination. Serbian PM, Ana Brnabić, a special envoy of the French President for the Balkans, Alain Richard and assistant director of Business France, Frederic Rossi officially opened the Forum.
During the three days of the Forum, a total of 450 companies were given a choice to participate in over 1,000 B2B
meetings, 2 plenary sessions, 6 sectoral roundtables, and benefit from numerous opportunities for networking, including the Gala Evening at the French Embassy where the guests were greeted by the Ambassador of France, H.E. Frederic Mondolini, President of the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Dragoljub Damljanović and Senator Jean-Yves Leconte.
The success of this Forum was also reflected in a strong initiative to hold such forums over the course of the next two years (the previous forum took place 4 years ago in Bucharest).
GALA EVENING
Gala Evening is one of the FSCC’s most exclusive and most attractive events, which took place for the 7th time on 17th April. The event’s symbolic topic was „Superheroes“ as homage to the FSCC members and their successes. Once a year, the Chamber gathers over 200 guests, diplomats, business people and public figures, with an interesting entertainment programme and good food, to celebrate success from the previous year. On the ocassion, the Chamber also gives out its Grand Prix awards in two categories – Innovation, which this year went to the Mlekoprodukt
Company for its project Ille de France (introducing exclusive French cheeses into the Serbian market) and Socially
Responsible Company, with this year’s winner being the Total Company for its „On the Safe Road“ project that is
aimed at children and their traffic safety. Special plaques were given to the first generation of participants in the Chamber’s Start-up Accelerator programme – Pet Guards and CarGo.
START-UP ACCELERATOR
For the second consecutive year, the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce has launched a competition Start-up Accelerator, a free one-year mentoring support programme for start-ups and companies that are up to a year old. Two projects were selected – Super Bake, a social entrepreneurship initiative where pensioners or female senior cititizes are engaged in cake baking, and Between, a system for quick and easy financing of invoices of small and medium-sized enterprises – which are going to enjoy the support of the Chamber’s Managing Board for a whole year. The winners of the ‘Start-up Accelerator“ programme will receive mentoring support in all aspects of their business – legal, marketing, financial and project – with the goal of further developing their companies. Also, the competition winners are given the right to become the Chamber members, thus increasing their visibility and expanding the network of contacts.
ACTIVITIES IN FRANCE
Nearly every month, the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce carries out activities in France such as participating in the B2B meetings titled Presenting Serbia, which are set up by French regional chambers. In 2018, B2B meetings were organized in Paris, Strasbourg, Nantes, Evry and Roisy. In France, the FSCC’s director participates in the work of the Consulative Board of the French Chambers of Commerce Abroad following their appointment to the Board in 2017. The Board is engaged in reforming the French dispositive of support to external trade. In the future, French
companies that want to go international will have a simplified access to any market, in line with the one-stop-shop principle.
BUSINESS CONSULTANCY FOR FRENCH COMPANIES
The French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce is continuously working to provide support to French companies that want to develop business activities in Serbia. We help companies from France in examining market potential, finding clients and partners, opening branch offices and generally, with expansion to the Serbian market. Among the French Chambers of Commerce abroad, the FSCC is ranked in the third – the highest category, because it provides a complete service to French companies interested in the Serbian market – from the initial information about the market to business launch and assistance in managing the company. For seven years now, the Chamber has been an operational partner of Business France, a state-owned French export promotion agency. During 2018, the Chamber dealt with more than 150 inquiries, and organized collective visits to over 80 companies and individual visits to 20 companies.
MONTHLY ACTIVITIES
The Chamber organizes three to four events a month, of different formats, to provide an opportunity for members to get to know each other, obtain information, and, of course, enjoy each other’s company.
Thus, this year, in cooperation with the Innovation Fund, the Chamber organized two meetups at which technological innovation support programmes were presented, as well as several trainings at the FSCC Training Centre. We would like to single out the training for modern marketing and digital marketing transformation, held by a great lecturer Lazar Džamić, as well as the training for public appearance and presentation skills held by Jovana Ružićić, who also trained some of the guests of world’s largest media outlets. For the first time this year, we presented a new event format to our members titled “10 questions for…”, which we organized, for the first time ever, in collaboration with the Director of the SerbianTax Administration, Mrs. Dragana Marković.
Among the other activities organised last year, we wolud also highlight a GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) Workshop for our members, held in cooperation with the Marić, Mališić, Dostanić Law Firm. We also continued with our traditional speed business meetings, which we have been holding for five years now. The last one was held with the members of the Italian-Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Nordic Business Alliance and the Japanese Business Alliance.
CORPORATE GIFTS FAIR
On 3rd October, for the first time ever in Serbia, the French-Serbian Chamber of Commerce held the Corporate Gifts Fair in the beautiful ambience of the Mercure Excelsior Hotel Belgrade, which gathered over 100 guests, members and other partners of the Chamber. At 14 stands, that showcased producers and vendors of chocolate, wine, fabrics, office supplies and gift sets, visitors, mainly general managers and marketing directors, got acquainted with new trends in corporate promotional gifts and were able to come up with an idea what gifts to buy for their business partners and associates.
FRENCH WEEK
The French Week is one of the Chamber’s most important events, which aims to promote French products, expertise and culture through a series of events held at several locations in the capital city and beyond. Under the slogan “Digital Memories”, the diverse and colourful activities that took place during the French Week provided guests with the opportunity to participate in the French Week’s traditional events, to learn some of the secrets of
French cuisine at a gastronomic workshop organized in cooperation with Voulezvous Etage, to taste good wine at the reception in honour of the the young French wine Beajolais Nouveau, and to taste the famous French cheeses produced by Mlekoprodukt and Somboled and the delicious canapes prepared by the Hyatt Regency Hotel and the Zlatiborac Company. At this traditional event, L’Oreal held a make-up workshop, WineArt introduced its diverse wine range, Fini presented its original French macarons, while French companies Guinot Mary Cohr and Sophie la Girafe presented their range of cosmetics for adults and children. This year’s edition of the Online Job Fair, held at www.francuskanedelja.rs , had a record 8,500 visits.
The youth programme also featured a four-day education camp called SkillsLab which was held for the students of technical sciences in collaboration with Schneider Electric, and a gaming workshop organized by Ubisoft for high school students. Culture also had a special place during the event – the visitors were able to see the award-winning film Captain Conan, directed by Bertrand Tavernier.
LeBOOSTER – FSCC BUSINESS CENTRE
As a part of its support for start-ups and facilitating easier integration of French and Serbian companies in local markets, the FSCC opened a business centre on its premises in the very heart of Belgrade that has offices, co-working spaces, virtual offices and a conference hall in the unique French touch environment. Companies can
use this address as their business addres, or rent a desk for a certain amount of time while enjoying the full logistic, business and networking offer of our Chamber. As an added benefit, while using our Business Centre, individuals and companies become a part of our business community and are given access to a network of contacts
and many events that we organize.