Chamber Partnership Western Balkans

The Chamber Partnership Western Balkans is a 3-year project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Cooperation. This initiative aims to foster regional integration and contributes to the implementation of the Common regional market in the Western Balkans.

What is the goal?

Strong national chambers of commerce and their closer regional cooperation have the potential to improve the business environment. This is where the Western Balkans Chamber Partnership comes in, and supports the partner chambers in strengthening their network. The aim of the project is, on the one hand, to strengthen the organizational capacities of the partner chambers and to promote their dialogue with politics to create better economic framework conditions. Another focus is to foster the cooperation of the local chambers of commerce and to promote the Chamber Investment Forum. This networking should also help to harmonize economic framework conditions across borders and to be perceived internationally as a region. In the long term, the project can help to promote the Common Regional Market in the Western Balkans.

What activities is the project working on?

Together with the six national chambers of commerce and the Chamber Investment Forum as the umbrella organization, the project designs and organizes various activities. These range from developing a regional platform and studies together, organizing regional round tables and conferences on various topics to fostering joint appearances as a region at (online) trade fairs. Furthermore, the project organizes exchanges of experience with German and international partners via various formats to exploit synergies wherever possible.

These are some if our activities:

• Conduction of an economic study elaborating nearshoring potentials in the Western Balkans after the Covid-19 crisis together with the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw)
• Supporting the chambers in establishing a Centre for Regional Economic Studies
• Organization of an online B2B in the metal sector with companies from South-Eastern Europe and Germany
• Comparative Study of the national chamber laws in the WB6 countries to match aspirations of WB6 chambers with existing legislation regarding relevance, added value and potential for chamber growth in the interest of the economy, members and public good
• Support of the creation of a digital signature platform with all six Western Balkans Chambers
• Research on funding by international donors and publication of an article on economic development in the Western Balkans
• Design Thinking Workshop for the chambers to create concepts on how to respond to the Covid-19 crisis
• Translation of the Invest in SEE website

For more information follow the project on LinkedIn

https://www.linkedin.com/company/chamber-partnership-western-balkans