Through an interactive panel discussion with all participants Patricia Kempff, Head of Public Affairs at ABB, Bengt Karlsson and Hilda Sandberg Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ola Parnevall, Metrum AB, Bo Eskesen formerly Eltel and Ingrid Berglund from National Board for Trade shared their experiences on dealing with Trade Barriers in Africa. The mix between public and private sector offered a fruitful exchange of insights. Discussions included main challenges of trade barriers when expanding business in Africa; Import Taxes/Tolls, Complex Tax System, Complex Bureaucracy, Language, Labor Laws and Corruption.
Experiences were shared on how barriers vary between different countries, how to have awareness of barriers, how to report barriers, how to avoid them, how to get support from Swedish and foreign authorities, and how we can collaborate more. A major conclusion from the seminar from the participants was that moving forward SSACC should take on the role as being the bridge in providing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on insights for trade barriers as experienced by private sector companies, as well as SSACC being a channel for the public sectors for spreading information regarding trade barriers to its members. The SSACC AGM on 21 February marked the celebration of our Chamber’s 5 year anniversary.
The Board could proudly report on the past year’s achievements. All SADC Embassies in Sweden see us as the #1 partner in promoting business relations between Sweden and their country. We are a member of Team Sweden and have been recognized as an important and relevant complement to Business Sweden. We have formalised our collaboration with more than 20 important stakeholders in the 15 SADC-countries, as well as with a number of key stakeholders in Sweden. And, most importantly, our members find us relevant, and confirm that we have helped them reach their goals in doing business in Southern Africa 2018 was indeed a milestone, the year when SSACC organised business delegations to three SADC countries; Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania The AGM also marked the launch of the new, expanded SSACC, namely Sweden sub-Saharan Africa Chamber of Commerce. Having focused on the 15 countries in the SADC region during the first 5 years, we now cover a total of 46 countries in the sub-Saharan region. This expansion has been driven by the interest from our members and partners. The absence of a Swedish chamber outside the SADC countries offering services that SSACC offers has sparked the request from members and partners as well as Swedish and foreign embassies that SSACC expands into the remaining sub-Sahara region. The experience and broad network that SSACC already has in sub-Sahara, makes this new expansion a natural development. We are also happy to announce that three new persons have joined the SSACC Board. They are Torben Sjöholm (ABB), James Butler (Stockholm Business Region AB) and Magnus Rehle (Growth-Consulting). We also want to thank Eva Hytenget and Katarina Schyberg, who are leaving as members of the Board, for their contribution in halping build SSACC to what it is today. After the AGM we organized a Trade Barriers in Southern Africa event for members and non-members. The AGM and event finished off with a mingle and networking cocktail with around 50 members, partners and Key Stakeholders, celebrating SSACC’s successful growth. Welcome to our new website!We are proud to announce that SSACC has expanded its coverage to all African countries south of the Sahara. Having focused on the 15 countries in the SADC region during the first 5 years, we now cover a total of 46 countries in the sub-Saharan region.
This expansion is driven by the interest from our members and partners. The absence of a Swedish chamber outside the SADC countries offering services that SSACC offers has sparked the request from members and partners as well as Swedish and foreign embassies that SSACC expands into the remaining sub-Sahara region. The experience and broad network that SSACC already has in sub-Sahara, makes this new expansion a natural development. In conjunction with our new geographical expansion SSACC has changed its name to Sweden sub-Saharan African Chamber of Commerce (SSACC) Welcome to join the SSACC membership and participate in all our events MEMBERSHIP |
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December 2023
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