Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS) is the largest independent nation-wide business association in Serbia with over 150 years of tradition, established by Law (OJ 65/2001, 36/2009, 99/2011, 112/2015). The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS) is an independent, non-governmental, business association set up by Law with compulsory membership. Last revision of the Chamber Law in 2015 has introduced integrated chamber system, which put all chambers of commerce, national and regional under one legal entity
Chamber of commerce and industry in Serbia operate as a unified chamber system. Bodies that govern CCIS are Assembly, Managing Board, Supervisory Board and President of the Chamber. There are around 550 employees in the CCIS and the work is organized through six main divisions: Industry division; Agriculture division; Services Division; Economic system division, International economic relations division and Education division.
Members of the CCIS are organized in 19 associations due to the economic branches that they belong to (trade, tourism, agriculture, ICT, textile, construction, banking, etc.) and Entrepreneurs’ community.
The CCIS has 5 representative offices - Austria, Germany, Italy, Russia and the EU office in Brussels.
The main Chamber activities involve:
• Representing the interests of economy before the Government and other state bodies and institutions;
• Internationalization - CCIS serves as facilitator of international economic cooperation on the policy and micro level;
• Services – The chamber provides array of services, based on the needs of their members, market failures and competences delegated by the states;
• Business training.
Business community in Serbia recognizes accession to the EU as a key element in transformation of business environment in Serbia, the region and the continent. CCIS seeks to contribute to this process by balancing the needs of the economic and legal dimension through facilitating effective communication between business community on the one side and decision makers in Belgrade, Brussels and elsewhere, on the other. Additionally, the Chamber invests significant efforts in supporting businesses in building up its own capacities for improving competitiveness in the European framework, and thus maximizing benefits from EU integration process.
The activities of CCIS in the area of european affairs are organised within:
• EU integration Center;
• EU Expert Team, consisted of experts from different Chamber units, Chamber system and the business community organized according to EU acquis chapters and associated with negotiation structure of the Government and
• The Representative Office of the CCIS in Brussels established in 2004 as a liaison office between the Chamber and its members, on the one side and the EU institutions on the other side, with the particular interest in activities related to the process of Serbia’s accession to the EU and regulatory and policy developments with impact on business environment in Europe.