German trade chamber eyes reviving linkages with CCCI

The craft and trade chamber of commerce group in Germany—Handwerkskammer Kassel (HWK) offers to revive its partnership with the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) in order to help some sectors here, such as environment, energy and crafts.

In his recent visit to Cebu, former managing director of HWK Klaus Schuchhardt said that the two chambers could continue its partnership in providing trainings for members of the CCCI, while there are a lot of volunteers in Germany who are willing to be deployed to train entrepreneurs for free, in developing countries like the Philippines.

“A lot of senior experts now in Germany are prepared to extend their help in doing [training] activities in the Philippines,” he said.

Schuchhardt said he hopes to further develop the relation of the two chambers and may establish academies here that would provide training for the business sector players.

CCCI, along with the Cagayan de Oro Chamber of Commerce and Industry were the beneficiaries of HWK assistance specifically in capability training during the 1980’s, in line with the bilateral agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of the Philippines.

The partnership dubbed Philippine-German Chamber of Commerce Partnership implemented successful projects, such as increase in membership, increase in quantity and quality of services to the members particularly to member-SMEs, increase in number and professionalization of Chamber staff, financial autonomy, sustainability of operation, and cooperation with counterpart government agencies.

This time, Schuchhardt said CCCI and HWK could renew this mutual agreement, and partnership agreement, with emphasis on technology transfer activities, as well as trade linkages with German counterpart companies, among others.

He said there are a lot of German companies that are now looking for service providers, to ensure energy efficiency and conserve energy, this could be a good start for the two chambers to work together in linking their respective members.

Also, he stressed the importance of environment protection for company operations that should be given a serious attention to Philippine-based companies, specifically for SMEs.

“I would like to see cooperation activities between the two chambers [HWK-CCCI] for a long term,” said Schuchhardt.

Schuchhardt was in Cebu recently to receive the distinction award given by the CCCI during the Chamber Awards 2008. — Ehda M. Dagooc