The project

The project “CC Factor: the Chambers of Commerce... growing together” was presented, as a plan, in Warsaw during the VI CEI Summit Economic Forum 2003: the expressions of interest that we collected encouraged us and convinced us of the usefulness of going on with our idea.

A simple, but ambitious idea:
building up a tight connection among the Chambers of Commerce of CEI Countries with the aim to offer easier ways to the entrepreneurs who want to face new markets.

Why the Chambers of Commerce?
First of all because they are:
- present in all the territories of the CEI area
- connected in a network.

Then because the Chambers of Commerce, both public and private, have all a common factor:
they are the ideal place where the enterprises understand and face their own problems and move themselves to solve them according to an intersectorial point of view.

2004 has been an intense year for the “CC Factor” project. These have been the most significant steps:

From the 3^rd to the 14^th of May an animation and formation path took place in Vercelli. 15 representatives from 13 Chambers of Commerce and from 1 national entrepreneurial association participated in it. They are now the actual partners of the project and they represent the following CEI countries (in red in the map): Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Ukraine. Some of the most interesting themes that were discussed during the path are
° Animation techniques, to help the “melting” of participants
° Creativity Laboratory
° Intercultural negotiation, transactions between EU and non-EU Countries
° Territorial marketing
The path may be usefully repeated when the number of partners increases.
Some contacts, not yet perfected through a real partnership, with other 25 Chambers of Commerce representing 11 countries (in green in the map) have been set up.

The Coordination Centre for Young Entrepreneurs and Professionals of the CEI Countries – CECCI (recognized by CECCI Central European Chambers of Commerce Initiative and by the CEI Secretariat of Trieste) has been constituted in Vercelli.
The Centre is the reference point for the young entrepreneurs and professionals of the CEI area.
As in a CLUB OF SERVICE with international value, the participants are ready to talk with each other, to carry out common projects, to contribute to give international visibility to the respective territories.
A very important section within the Centre regards the women’s entrepreneurship, and the person in charge for it is Mrs. Lella Bassignana, President of the Women Entrepreneurship Committee.

The web site www.ccfactor.it, just constituted, is already operative.
It is an essential instrument of information, mutual knowledge, dialogue and study of projects of common interest.
The site has been created to favour the promotion of the activity of the project, the information about events, the communication among the partners and the connection with the groups of young entrepreneurs and professionals.

The home page consists of two sections:
◊ a public one containing
· economic news, and so on
· country/province schedules for a better promotion of one’s own territory
· a shared agenda with periodical appointments and the events connected to the project
◊ a private one to develop activities/projects and to exchange private news and information.
The names of the entrepreneurs and professionals, who are ready to carry out common projects and who are connected to the Coordination Centre of Vercelli, are also included in this section.
For this section a personal password will be given.

Standard type contracts and Rapid Arbitration in the CEI area.
The development of business relationships is pursued also by offering to businessmen easy and clear contractual instruments and rapid and economical systems to solve controversies.
The Project has the ambitious aim to realize, with the support of Unioncamere the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce, and through the work of study groups at international level:

° models of standard type contracts with clear and certain clauses which take into account the different (economic and juridical) customs and mentalities of the different parties
· economic news, and so on
· country/province schedules for a better promotion of one’s own territory
· a shared agenda with periodical appointments and the events connected to the project
° rules of Rapid Arbitration to guarantee
· the actual neutrality of the Unique Arbitrator and of the Third Arbitrator
· reasonable costs and resolution timethe creation of a supranational Arbitral Chamber with the task of addressing and supervising.
° the creation of a supranational Arbitral Chamber with the task of addressing and supervising.

The Vercelli Chamber of Commerce boasts of a long-lasting tradition in the field of standard type contracts and arbitral proceedings, as Body managing the local Commodities Exchange: the Coordination Centre for Young Entrepreneurs and Professionals of the CEI countries – CECCI would be therefore ready to undertake the Secretariat activity during the start up.

These last twelve months have served to establish the bases for the consolidation of the connections with the CEI Partners and for the development of interpersonal relationships among entrepreneurs and professionals of the different countries.
As regards this point, the groups of young entrepreneurs and professionals represent the pillars of our project.
They are entrepreneurs and professionals who, without forgetting their own interests and their business objectives, put themselves at disposal in order to pursue aims at higher level. They feel to be open to dialogue, and ready to carry out common projects, to host and to visit other countries, with the final objective to give international visibility to their own territories and to offer privileged ways to face new markets to the Partners.

A CLUB OF SERVICE at international level, to overcome the differences and emphasize the common aspects; a group of people with its own identity within the CC Factor Project, that will have its first meeting, an opportunity to carefully examine common subjects, in Vercelli in the late Spring of 2006 during the 1^st CEI Young Entrepreneurs and Professionals Convention.

In the meantime, during 2005, our energies will be focused on the extension of the field of the Partner Chambers of Commerce, both in the CEI area and in Italy.

The following initiatives are already being planned:

the visit of a delegation from Vercelli and from Italy to countries where there are Partner Chambers of Commerce
some visits of reduced delegations (3/4 people), on specific subjects, to the Partner Chambers of Commerce
one or more visits of delegations of entrepreneurs and professionals from Partner Chambers of ommerce to Italy, with the support of the Coordination Centre for Young Entrepreneurs and Professionals of the CEI Countries – CECCI
a pilot project to establish, at the Chamber of Commerce in the capital of a partner country, a reference office for entrepreneurs from Vercelli or from Italy, managed by a qualified local person, after this person has attended a training course in Vercelli
the creation of a working group at international level to put forward hypotheses for standard type contracts and Rapid Arbitration.

All this will, obviously, take place with a constant exchange of information, a steady dialogue about common subjects and with a constant implementation of the web site.

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