The beginning of a project within the communitarian planPhare Small Project

The Chamber of Commerce of Treviso promoted the constitution of a network of relations with some Chambers of Commerce (new UE Countries and Romania and Bulgaria Chambers of Commerce), in order to establish relations of cooperation among Chambers, aiming at identifying development opportunities for enterprises and at collaborating to the creation of a real single market. The initiative has been realized within the sphere of the project “Chambers of Commerce network for local development in the internal market”, co-financed by the European Commission within the context of the plan Phare Small Projects, an instrument that supports the technical assistance to Central and Oriental European Countries (with the exception of ex URSS) that are going to enter or have just entered the UE. The partners of the project are:

• REGIONAL UNION OF VENETOCHAMBERS OF COMMERCE-VENETO EUROCOUNTER
• FOREIGN CENTRE OF VENETO CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
• ACCOA – Association of Chambers of Commerce for Central Europe (Gorizia)
• SLOVENIA REGIONAL ECONOMIC UNION (Trieste)
• VRATSA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (Vratsa, Bulgaria)

• PANEVEZYS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRY AND CRAFT (Panevezys, Lithuania)
• ITALIAN-POLISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (Varsavia, Poland)

• BIALYSTOK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (Bialystok- Poland)

• COSTANZA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRY, NAVIGATION AND AGRICULTURE (Constanza – Romania)
• BRAILA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRY AND AGRICULTURE (Braila – Romania)
• ITALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN ROMANIA(Bucarest – Romania)
• ITALIAN-SLOVAK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (Bratislava –SlovakRepublic)
• ITALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOR HUNGARIA (Budapest - Hungaria)
• PECS-BARANYA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY (Pecs – Hungaria)

The Chamber of Commerce of Treviso decided to take part to the plan Phare with the conviction that development opportunities for enterprises result from the reciprocal knowledge of territories.

The project allows to establish contacts and to start a dialogue among bodies that have in common the Chamber's matrix, exploiting the fundamental role of Chambers in terms of local interests representation and development promotion. The creation of a network of relations among Chambers of Commerce permits to start collaborations oriented towards the making of a real single market and an open space for dialogue among enterprises, primarily among small and medium-size ones, which are the more active expressions of local economic systems.

The first workshop of the project took place in Treviso at the Chamber headquarters from the 20th to the 22nd of last April. These three working days were the occasion for starting the reciprocal knowledge among different economic realities represented by the Chamber’s partners. This workshop was an opportunity for offering the managerial and promotional know-how of the Chamber of Commerce of Treviso and the experience of its specialized agencies and for presenting good practises developed by the Chamber’s system at regional level.

Moreover, the meeting gave opportunities of contact with the situation of the main industrial districts in Veneto province, by means of study visit and meeting with entrepreneurs and representants of the associative world.

The work that has been done by the partnership during the first workshop defined the following phases of project activities: the realization of seminars addressed to enterprises and informative dossier about Countries involved in the plan. Seminars, planned for the 20th of June and the 7th of July, will have the objective of presenting opportunities of productive and commercial collaboration among enterprises in the regions of the New Europe. Workshops will illustrate the general economic context, national and communitarian financial supports that ease investment projects and local distributional channels. Seminars will be focused on two different groups of Countries: the 20th of June dedicated to Lithuania, Poland and Hungaria and the 7th of July dedicated to Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. Countries presentation will take place in the morning, while in the afternoon, at the stock exchange room, individual meeting will start. These meeting will be fix in advance, by means of appointments with representants of aforementioned Chambers of Commerce, SIMEST, FINEST and Credit Institutions of Veneto.

Thanks to the collaboration of Chambers of Commerce in partnership, the project will permit the realization of informative dossier, conceived to give a concise answer to questions concerning the commercial and productive approach to these Countries: how to enter the market, what kind of national, local or UE financial reductions and tax concessions to support investment projects. Dossier will be distributed to all participants and will be at your disposal in the Chamber’s web site www.tv.camcom.it .

Edy Bombonato
from "L'Economia della Marca Trevigiana", Giugno 2005