JÕHVI OFFICE
In 2008 the key words for the Jõhvi office were co-operation projects with various institutions and provision of traditional services to the companies of Ida-Viru County.
In 2008 the Jõhvi Office of the Chamber of Commerce participated in several cooperation projects the most important of which was the project Innomet-Est carried out together with the Federation of Estonian Engineering Industry. The aim of the project was to create a virtual environment which would have on one hand in-service training which the employers want for developing their personnel and on the other hand training courses offered by the educational institutions. In addition to that, companies that have joined the Innomet system have the opportunity for simple analysis of compliance of the skills of their employees with the aims of the company and immediately find suitable trainings. Additional information regarding the project can be found at the address www.innomet.ee.
Within the framework of the Innomet-Est project we organised visits of the pupils of several schools of the county to local companies. The aim of this activity was to, on one hand give the pupils an overview of the real working environment, on the other hand intensify the habit of similar cooperation in the companies as well as schools. In addition to that we organised participation of companies from Virumaa in more than ten relevant trainings in local vocational education institutions and Virumaa College of the Tallinn University of Technology.
In summer 2008 Estonian-Finnish joint conference with more than hundred participants was held at the Jõhvi Concert Hall. The event focused on labour migration and cross-cultural communication issues. We organised the conference in cooperation with the European Parliament Information Office in Estonia. The conference was opened by the Minister of Population and Ethnic Affairs Urve Palo, moderators of the event were Ülari Alamets from EE and Anne-Ly Reimaa from the Ministry of Culture. The event was written about in local as well as national media. The most important conclusion achieved was that Estonia needs to be ready for increasing labour migration and the concurring cross-cultural communication.
Within the framework of the joint project between the Jõhvi Rural Municipality government and Kingissepa City government “Jõhvi-Kingissepp Networks” we organised a delegation of entrepreneurs of Ida-Viru County to the Kingissep Region. There were meetings with local companies and heads of the Kingissepa city, the coal terminal of the Ust-Luga port and several local companies were visited. Within the framework of the same project the Jõhvi Office organised a visit of two Russian business delegations to Ida-Viru County during which contact meetings were held with local entrepreneurs, Narva mine and several local companies were visited, the sights of Ida-Virumaa and local tourism infrastructure companies were introduced.
At the end of 2008 we successfully participated in the competition for establishing Europe Direct Information Centres and at the beginning of 2009 the respective Information Centre was opened in the rooms of the Jõhvi Office. Through the Europe Direct network the entrepreneurs of Virumaa have an access to diverse information regarding the European Union and related issues.
During the entire year we communicated actively with the vocational education institutions of the County and organised the work of the council of Ida-Viru Vocational Education Centre.
PÄRNU OFFICE
Traditionally, the Pärnu Office of the Chamber of Commerce paid a lot of attention on providing services to the entrepreneurs and facilitated development of the business environment in Pärnu County in 2008.
The biggest percentage was held by the seminars organised for topics arising from amendments of the law. There were in total 18 trainings with more than 600 participating companies. Among other things subjects like tax amendments, labour law, administration, financial planning and debt collection were discussed. The most popular training was “Customer management in modern companies”. It is probably due to the fact that because of the market situation in decrease there is more time and need for paying attention to the client, which is a very positive phenomenon.
In hopes of offering opinions of the best experts of the field in interesting and current topics we organised “Economic Afternoon” in cooperation with West Estonian region of Swedbank on 24 September. There were more than 200 entrepreneurs and representatives of the public sector participating in this concise and spirited event. Good ideas were given by Raivo Vare who spoke about Estonian genesis, peasant thinking and scenarios for the future; Raul Järve who gave an overview of the most typical mentalities for making a company more efficient, and Jüri Ennet who taught how to avoid stress and burning out.
We continue cooperation with the supporting structures of entrepreneurship in Pärnu County as well as the public sector. We represent companies on the council level at the Pärnumaa Vocational Education Centre and Pärnumaa Entrepreneurship and Development Centre.
As during the previous year, we contributed to the compilation and carrying out of the Pärnu entrepreneurship week. Within the framework of the Entrepreneurship Week we organised a Business Breakfast with financial journalist Villu Zirnask who spoke about fresh trends on the financial markets and in financial management. We also participated in the business study programme within the framework of which we were represented in the committee for evaluation of student business plans as well as assessing the works of the student companies.
We organised for the members of the Chamber of Commerce a meeting with the Baltic information manager Rob Sterkman from the Dutch Foreign Trade Agency whose aim was to promote cooperation between the entrepreneurs of Pärnu County and Holland.
Pärnu has good possibilities for conference tourism; however, as a target destination the city is not popular enough yet. Therefore we organised in cooperation with the Pärnu Convention Bureau and active tourism companies an information day introducing the area at the Estonian Embassy in Riga. The event gave an overview of the possibilities of our region and its attractiveness mostly as a place for conferences but also for holiday.
The bowling tournament of the member companies from Pärnu and Viljandi Counties was held for already 8th time. At the event the entrepreneurs could measure each other in the sports hall before the summer.
At the end of the year we started activities for forming the Pärnumaa wood cluster. Furthermore, we started preparations in cooperation with the University of Tartu, Tallinn University of Technology, Pärnu City Government, Pärnu County Government, Association of Local Authorities of Pärnu County and Pärnu Entrepreneurship and Development Centre for forming Pärnu Know-How Centre the aim of which is to offer diverse services for facilitating the development of the employers of the region and possibilities for the growth of more knowledge-based economic structure.
In 2008 we issued 3031 certificates of origin, which was a record result.
TARTU OFFICE
One of the aims of the regional office is certainly to make the everyday services – responding to information requests, issuing certificates of origin, consultations, etc - of the Chamber easily accessible for the members. The interest of the members towards these services continued to be high during the year 2008 and they were actively used through the Tartu Office.
We participated in the work of several working groups and commissions meant for developing local entrepreneurship. Participation in the work of the Tartumaa Business Round Table and participation in the jury of the competition Best Companies of Tartu 2008 are among the activities worth mentioning. Good cooperation relations have been developed also with the Tartu Science Park and University of Tartu Centre for Entrepreneurship, we are represented in the work of University of Tartu Centre for Entrepreneurship.
During the year we organised 11 different study days. The seminar concerning determining goodwill of companies and related problems proved to be of interest for many. Furthermore, trainings regarding amendments of Consumer Protection and Advertising acts and seminar on collection and processing of personal data were also popular.
Furthermore, we carried out trainings related to specific issues of foreign trade for entrepreneurs of Võru and Viljandi, which also gave us a good opportunity to introduce the Chamber of Commerce and our activities.
Tartu has a good tradition of organising the Tartu Entrepreneurship Week. The leader of the event is the Tartu City Government and all local business organisations take active part in it. In 2008 we organised a seminar on the use of Incoterms in exporting and importing within the framework of the Entrepreneurship Week. The large number of participants showed that the entrepreneurs considered this topic relevant.
In terms of cross-border ties, cooperation with the Valmiera office of the Latvian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Pskov has continued. We have mutually mediated the responding to the information requests of companies and have participated in several events.
At the beginning of 2008 we moved our Tartu Office to address Pikk tn 14, one of the criteria for selecting a new location was the possibility of free parking for our visitors.
KURESSAARE OFFICE
The Saaremaa office issued 942 certificates of origin in 2008 (in 2007 750 certificates). The head of the Saaremaa Office Tullio Liblik continued work in the council of the Kuressaare Regional Training Centre and vocational education projects (e.g. as a member of the jury at an international professional competition for chefs), furthermore, he participated in the work of the council of Saaremaa Golfi AS. Tullio Liblik participated actively in the establishing of the Association of Entrepreneurs of Saaremaa and the Saare County Government as well as the Kuressaare City Government have invited Tullio Liblik as a representative of the Chamber to participate in all the meetings related to permanent connection with the mainland, the bridge and Kuressaare city planning. Furthermore, Tullio has always been invited to participate in the traditional round table discussions at the local radio station Kadi at the end of the year.
