Ana Grujović, Director of the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce: The year 2021 brought us the much-awaited gatherings in person

The Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce will continue to work on expanding not only its membership but also the network of institutional partners.

The Swiss-Serbian economic relations in 2021 were marked by exciting new activities, including the opening of a new production plant of the Swiss company, Regent Lighting’, in Svilajnac, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, Barry Callebaut opening its production plant in Novi Sad by, and Serbia purchasing Stadler’s high-speed trains, to name a few.

Ana Grujović, Director of the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce

The year 2021 brought us the much-awaited gatherings in person. For the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, members of the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce (SSCC) attended the business networking lunch in Vrdnik, on Fruška Gora, together with SSCC’s guest of honour, the Swiss Ambassador to the Republic of Serbia and Montenegro, H.E. Urs Schmid. This was followed by the exhibition “Can tech save the world?”, organized by the Swiss Embassy in cooperation with local partners, including SSCC, which was opened in September 2021 at the Science Technology Park in Belgrade. The exhibition showcased innovative, clean-tech solutions developed by Serbian and Swiss startups and emerging companies. At the same time, the opening of the exhibition was an opportunity for Serbian and Swiss innovative companies to network and consider possibilities for further cooperation and joint projects.

Also in September 2021, during the ’International Networking Cocktail, members of other bilateral chambers of commerce in Serbia had a business networking gathering.

However, SSCC did not restrict its cooperation to only local business organizations. The Swiss bilateral chambers of commerce from Bulgaria, Romania and North Macedonia took part in the first joint regional event called Swiss Business in Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and North Macedonia. On this occasion, we were happy to welcome four Swiss Ambassadors from the region.

In 2021, SSCC also introduced a series of webinars titled ”CEE-Swiss Impulse Session’’, held in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce Switzerland (SEC).

 In 2021, SSCC also introduced a series of webinars titled ”CEE-Swiss Impulse Session’’, held in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce Switzerland (SEC). SEC is a non-profit organization based in Zurich that promotes business between Swiss companies and those from Central and Eastern Europe.

Regarding the public-private dialogue, the working meeting titled ‘’Macroeconomic trends in the economy of the Republic of Serbia in the context of COVID-19’’ took place in April 2021 with the representatives of the Serbian Ministry of Finance and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry taking part. In addition to presentations about the economic measures of support and the macroeconomic data of the domestic economy, participants had the opportunity to directly engage in dialogue with the representatives of the state bodies.

In 2021, the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce’s focus remained unchanged – digitalization is still one of the key elements for the further development of sustainable business activities and the enhancement of the Swiss-Serbian economic relations. Most business leaders have decided to launch digital transformation initiatives to keep businesses running as smoothly as possible during the COVID-19 outbreak and to better prepare for the recovery phase.

With this in mind, the SSCC organized the online round table discussion called ‘’Digitalization of healthcare ecosystem – one year later’’ together with Roche Serbia, one of the SSCC founding members. The purpose of this round table was to better understand the implications of digital transformation in healthcare and discuss how this transformation can be further advanced in Serbia.

Digitalization is still one of the key elements for the further development of sustainable business activities and the enhancement of the Swiss-Serbian economic relations.

Since the Serbian ICT sector is attracting the attention of Swiss companies, in cooperation with its institutional partner from Switzerland, ’Switzerland Global Enterprise (S-GE), the SSCC will hold a webinar in January 2022 to present the potential of the local market to interested companies from Switzerland. We are particularly happy to announce the participation of Nicolas Bürer, Managing Director of digitalswitzerland, in this event. Additionally, we will provide a platform for online business networking.

Last but not least, the SSCC members have been very active over the last 12 months and initiated many webinars on relevant topics, such as the webinar “Home office – risks and challenges for Employers in Serbia”, co-organized with the TSG Law Firm. There was also the Bilateral HR Meeting, initiated by Mokra Gora School of Management, which covered several interesting HR subjects for HR professionals from the SSCC member companies. Then, there was a webinar about the new Law on Digital Property which was held in cooperation with the JSP Law Firm, which helped members to learn more about the law which regulates the use of virtual currencies and digital tokens in the Republic of Serbia. Finally, as in 2020, we continued with a series of lectures on cyber-security, thanks to the SSCC’s premium member-company, Sky Express’.

Next year, the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce will continue to work on expanding not only its membership but also the network of institutional partners, both locally, in the region and Switzerland as well.

 

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