The Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce and the Swiss Embassy in Belgrade co-organized the “Swiss Business Networking Event” with a view of strengthening the ties between the members of the Swiss Business Community in Serbia. The event was held on Thursday, December 10, 2015 at the Swiss Residence in Belgrade and gathered over 90 guests.
Firstly, H.E. Ambassador Ruch welcomed the guests and emphasized that the Swiss Business Community was getting year over year stronger in Serbia. According to him, large as well as small and medium enterprises from Switzerland were indeed showing growing interest in the Serbian market. Ambassador Ruch emphasized that the Swiss companies in Serbia had strongly contributed to fostering a more competitive environment in Serbia by promoting key Swiss values, such as quality, know-how and work ethics.
Then, he presented the “Cultural Fund” mechanism, which was recently established by the Swiss Embassy in Belgrade in a public-private partnership spirit. Considering culture as one of the most effective soft power of the society, Ambassador Ruch stated that cultural events in Serbia could both benefit sponsors’ visibility and promote the common attachment to creativity and forward look.
After this, guests had an opportunity to learn more about the Swiss-Serbian Chamber of Commerce. Mrs. Ana Govedarica, SSCC Board member and General Manager of Roche doo, presented SSCC’s current and future endeavors to boost business relations between Switzerland and Serbia. Mrs. Govedarica pointed out that SSCC’s vision was to support the sustainable development of the Serbian society and that its main role was to act as the first contact point for the private sector business actors from both Switzerland and Serbia.
According to her, in a short period of 1,5 year, SSCC gathered 54 members, including companies from pharmaceutical industry, agrifood and construction industry, service-providers, and other sectors. Mrs. Govedarica also stressed out that all SSCC members benefited from a wide variety of services, such as knowledge improvement, business networking and raised visibility of member-companies via SSCC official website. As for SSCC’s activities, Mrs. Govedarica mentioned the seminar on protection of whistleblowers and personal data protection, which took place in November 2015, as well as two events in Switzerland – in Zurich and Geneva.
Finally, Mrs. Govedarica concluded that SSCC was constantly striving to promote the concept of “Swissness” and that this Association would consistently listen and respond to its members in order to provide them with high-quality services and contribute to the further strengthening of Swiss-Serbian economic relations.
These presentations were followed by a cocktail which offered opportunities to all guests to identify new potential business partners and obtain more information about SSCC’s work.