Promotion of the Serbian and Italian market
The promotion of the Italian entrepreneurial presence in the Serbian market and the improvement of the Balkan country’s potential for extension and integration with the Italian industrial system is the core mission of our Chamber.
Consistently with the aim to stimulate and encourage the growth of trade and the number of the Italian foreign direct investments (FDIs) on the Serbian market, our Chamber focused on organizing a variety of events of different nature and scope.
ACTIVITIES
In order to help businesses to deal with the problems affecting their activities, the Chamber plans a series of thematic meetings with the participation of renowned speakers from various sectors. The Chamber seeks to address current issues by following economic trends, current regulations and some more issues of interest to the members and the business community.
In organizing events of this type, the Chamber tries to involve as many companies as possible operating in Serbia with the aim of reaching effective solutions that can help overcome the difficulties faced by entrepreneurs.
From September 2021 until June 2022, in collaboration with our associate partners, 8 different events between webinars, workshops and others important initiatives. The first three of our webinars concentrated on the legal and financial sector, the first one of these was organized together with the renowned member law firm Jankovic, Popovic & Mitic, which covered the most important areas of law relating to the daily activities of a company, entitled ‘ANNUAL REVIEW – Relevant Rules and Practices Regular Trade’; in collaboration with the partner BDO Business Advisory Doo, the webinar ‘Free Online Seminar on Major Changes to Tax Laws’ aimed at informing members on the most important areas relating to changes made to tax laws; finally, together with Law Milosevic firm, we organized a webinar concerning the Law on Archive Materials and Archiving activities with the aim of clarifying doubts regarding what an archive book is and how it is supposed to be compiled.
In collaboration with the German Chamber of Commerce, the Swiss Chamber of Commerce and our partner Sky Express, we organized two webinars which covered the sector of cybersecurity, entitled ‘Security of Business Information Systems’ and ‘Information Systems Security Management (MSSP)’, analysing the main causes of the increase in the cybercrime and how to choose the most effective security management system.
During the webinar held by the World Bank in November 2021, ‘Relocation of Supply Chains to Serbia: opportunities in post-Covid period’, we had the opportunity to participate and introduce our Chamber’s activities and work, explaining the cooperation between Italy and Serbia as well as experiences of Italian companies in the supply chain and cooperation with local companies.
In order to stimulate entrepreneurs and managers in creating an ideal working environment and consequently increase the productivity and the corporate well-being, we organized two different workshop: in collaboration with Elite Academic Vision, it took place the workshop entitled ‘2020/2022 the world seems to divide: Healthy Vs Sick – Vaccinated Vs NonVaccinated – East Vs West’; the second of the two meetings held on this topic was named ‘Intercompany contracts’, the CRS International discussed the importance of offering adequate inter-company contracts and how the absence or poor quality of these contracts can cause serious damage to the company.
Different activities and meetings have been organized in collaboration with the other bilateral organizations in Serbia in order to support our associate partners in finding new partners, promoting their business and expanding their pool of collaborators and suppliers: in November 2021, we organized different meetings between the representatives of the festival We Make Future, the most relevant characters of the digital market and the Institutions of Serbia, to evaluate the feasible collaboration from a global perspective and to give the opportunity to the best companies to participate on the front line at the festival in Rimini in June 2022; within the Kopaonik Business Forum, our Chamber, participated at the International Coffee Break, where the guest participants had the opportunity to get to know each other, connect, exchange experiences and ideas; furthermore, the annual Speed Business Meeting that took place at the Prezident Palace Hotel in Belgrade, gave the possibility to our associate partners to expand their business and connections.
IN COLLABORATION WITH SISTEMA ITALIA
Our Chamber is committed to participate and organize events together with Sistema Italia, in order to promote the development of Italy abroad.
In October 2021, in Subotica the joint initiative of ‘Sistema Italia’ Roadshow Serbia was realized thanks to the collaboration of the Embassy of Italy in Belgrade, ICE, our Chamber and Confindustria Serbia; in total over 50 Italian and local companies took part and the initiative. This event aimed not only at sharing the possibilities and opportunities of both Italian and Serbian market, but also to affirm the Italian institutional presence in support of Italian companies, which are already established in individual communities.
Our Chamber of Commerce took part in the organization of a calendar full of events, between tradition and sustainability, at the ‘Tasting of the VI Week of Italian Cuisine in the World’, from 22nd to 28th November 2021. Together with our partners Sir & Će and Pupeat, importers of Italian products in Serbia, we have been committed to the realization of a tasting day to promote the Italian cuisine at the associated restaurant Nook, in Belgrade on the 25th of November, focusing the event on products and specialties of the excellent Italian cuisine. This event gave the opportunity to the participants to expand their business affairs and to create cooperation between Italian producers and Serbian importers and distributors.
To celebrate the eccelency of the Italian design all over the world, at the sixth edition of the Design Day in Belgrade, the Italian Embassy in Belgrade, the ICE Agency and the Italian Cultural Institute in Belgrade, together with our Chamber of Commerce and Confindustria Serbia, presented the conference entitled: “Italian lighting technology: intelligent light for smart cities. The Italian excellence of the lightning design at the service of the person.”
“Ambassador” of the Italian design in Serbia 2022 was the Professor Corrado Terzi, followed by many other important relators such as the Professor Marco Palandella, the CEOs of Coelux Paolo from Trapani, Buck Lighting Darko Budec, Marina Minozzi from the Galleria Borghese and the engeneer Giulia Marzani from the project EnlightMe of the Alma Mater Univesity of Bologne.
Thanks to the partnership of Artefacto, Buck Lighting, Berlight Design, Light studio-Artemide e Lusso, this year the event in Serbia foresees a rich exhibition of models of lighting design and (not only) from the leading Italian companies at an international level in the sector.
ICE – Italian Agency for the Abroad Promotion and Internationalization of Italian Companies, led by director Antonio Ventresca, attended the Novi Sad International Agricultural Fair again this year, held from 21 to 27 May; in the Italian Pavilion, the agency brought an Italian delegation of 24 exhibiting companies. Furthermore, in collaboration with the trade association FEDERUNACOMA (National Federation of Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers) and CREA (Food and Nutrition Research Center), ICE held a seminar dedicated to the impact of new technologies in agriculture and the opportunities for bilateral collaboration during which Ambassador Lo Cascio also spoke.
“EIMA International”, one of the largest trade fairs in the agricultural equipment and machinery sector, was presented with the idea of encouraging Serbian companies and supporting them to be exhibitors in Bologna.
DIALOGUES
The format ‘Dialogue with the Institutions’ has always received much support from our partners, therefore, our Chamber continued strengthening this type of event to address the problems relating to entrepreneurs’ work and find valid solutions. One of the ‘Dialogue with the Income Revenue Authority of Serbia’ was held on November 26th, 2021, in collaboration with the Franco- Serbian (CCIFS) and German-Serbian (AHK) Chambers of Commerce: the meeting focused on measures dedicated to taxpayers and on the possibility of direct contact with officials in order to improve communication between the parties.
Furthermore, it has been organized together with the German, French, Hellenic and Belgian bilateral associations, another ‘Dialogue with the Ministry of Mining and Energy’ on February 22nd, 2022, to establish a constant dialogue between representatives of trade and business, therefore, companies that are part of bilateral organizations on the one hand and official institutions on the other.
In March, in collaboration with 12 bilateral organizations in Serbia, we organized the ‘Dialogue with the Employment Agency’, where over 100 associated companies participated. The representatives of the Agency introduced the participants to all the news within the program regarding active employment policy measures, the amount of financial support for employers, the categories of unemployed who can be hired, as well as other benefits that can be obtained through cooperation with the agency in question.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF MEMBERS
On March 17th, the General Assembly of the Members of the Italo-Serbian Chamber of Commerce was successfully held online, where around 40 representatives and delegates of our associated partners took part in the meeting.
During the Assembly, the upcoming planned activities were presented, the financial report of the Chamber of 2021 and together the activities of 2021 were also reviewed.
Eventually, the Assembly welcomed the three new members of the Board of Directors of the Chamber, coming from highly prestigious companies: Francesco Masci (CEO DDOR osiguranje Unipol group), Nikola Vuletic (Chairman of the UniCredit Bank Executive Council), Vladimir Babic (CEO Damiba Medical and Damiba Trade Belgrade).
