On 21 January, representatives of the Swiss organisation HELVETAS paid a working visit to the Zaporizhzhia Chamber of Commerce and Industry: Petr Bashe, Head of HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation in Ukraine, and Anastasiia Baklan, Head of Projects and Partnerships.
Supporting small and medium-sized businesses, developing human resources, and ensuring synergies between business and education were among the important topics of discussion. These and other possible areas of cooperation were discussed with Andrii Kuts, Vice President of the Zaporizhzhia CCI, Dmytro Antoniuk, Vice President, Kseniia Nahorna, Head of International Relations, and Valerii Sapronov, Curator of the ZCCI Education Project.
‘Thank you very much for organising such a warm welcome, it is a pleasure to be in Zaporizhzhia. HELVETAS is a Swiss development organisation that was founded in 1955 and is one of the oldest in Switzerland. The organisation has a dual mandate: humanitarian response and economic development, mainly through the development of professional skills and labour market development. HELVETAS has been working in Ukraine since before the full-scale invasion. Today, its activities in Ukraine are expanding,’ said representatives of HELVETAS Swiss Intercooperation in Ukraine.
‘We are very interested in cooperation with Chambers of Commerce and Industry. This is a platform through which we can jointly implement projects to support small and medium-sized businesses and economic development. We know that you have a unique experience in obtaining the accreditation of the Qualification Centre. This is a very valuable experience. We also cooperate with state institutions, in particular, the State Employment Service, the National Qualifications Agency, and relevant ministries. We will be very happy to establish effective communication!’ said Anastasiia Baklan.
Currently, HELVETAS is implementing 7 projects in Ukraine aimed at rebuilding public infrastructure and residential buildings, and an economic development project focusing on labour market development, vocational education, and assistance to small and medium-sized businesses.
Petr Bashe also shared the experience of a labour market and business needs survey recently conducted by HELVETAS.
Representatives of the Swiss organisation were particularly interested in the information provided by the Zaporizhzhia CCI on the work of the Qualification Centre, rapid retraining programmes, cluster initiatives, as well as projects aimed at supporting small and medium-sized businesses and strengthening their presence in domestic and foreign markets.
In particular, they spoke about the following areas of activity of the Zaporizhzhia CCI:
- ‘The services of the Zaporizhzhia Chamber of Commerce and Industry today are aimed at helping enterprises in wartime, ensuring the vital activity of the region and the effective functioning of enterprises.
- As a part of the global and national system of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, we use international instruments to the maximum extent possible to help Zaporizhzhia products enter new markets, internationalise, and establish cooperation.
- We maintain an ongoing dialogue with international partners. There are more than 70 bilateral agreements between the Zaporizhzhia CCI and other chambers, associations, and donor organisations.
- We are implementing the SkillBoost educational project, a programme for accelerated staff retraining and employment assistance at Zaporizhzhia region enterprises. Its goal is to help people learn new working professions for free and help companies find qualified employees.
- The Zaporizhzhia Chamber of Commerce and Industry has a Qualification Centre where you can confirm professional skills acquired outside of educational institutions, in particular, at work, during courses and trainings.
- We support Zaporizhzhia companies on their way to exporting to the EU. Throughout 2024, experts from the Zaporizhzhia CCI, as part of a team of specialised experts from the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, advised business representatives on assessing the compliance of engineering materials with EU requirements.
- By contacting the ZCCI, Zaporizhzhia companies can open a company profile in the EEN network for free and gain access to the largest European network of business contacts. The Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) is the largest European network of enterprises, which includes 70 countries, more than 2,500,000 organisations, and more than 10,000 company profiles.
- By accumulating international experience, our own developments, and analysing business needs, we have created an online resource to introduce Zaporizhzhia entrepreneurs to the European business community. This is the online platform of Zaporizhzhia business PRO_Business.
We hope to start cooperation with the Swiss organisation HELVETAS for joint business support projects in the near future.