The partnership of Regional Chamber of Economy Nis RCE, Confederation of Danish Industries DI and LEDIB Programme on development project “RCE Nis Capacity Building” resulted in the implementation of the strategic meeting in DBID premises in Copenhagen on January 25-26, 2010.

Representatives of RCE Nis who attended the meeting are: Mr. Nebojsa Bogdanovic, Vice President, Mr. Miodrag Stojadinovic, Assembly President, Mr. Sasa Matejic, Secretary General and Mr. Dragan Paunovic, Advisor. DBID Project Team led by Mr. Peter Helk; Mr. Carsten Lund, Director and Ms. Danka Milojkovic, Component Coordinator, both of LEDIB Programme also attended the meeting.

The goal of the meeting was to create the Draft Strategy of RCE Nis Development and Action Plan of Business Organizations Cooperation on 2010, according to the established mutual priorities of RCE Nis.

The meeting was opened by Mr. Lars Tajlgaard Jensen, DIBD Director, who presented the challenges in development of Business Membership Organizations.  

During the first day of the meeting, participants discussed external influences on Nis RCE strategic development. The group focused on the following influences:

• New Law on Chambers of Economy that is supposed to be passed in 2013.
• Inappropriate understanding of Chamber’s activities due to its previous inadequate functioning,
• Low level of economic development of Nisava Region,
• Strong influence of politics and
• Empowering of the existing or appearance of new business organizations/associations in the Region as a kind of reaction to previous activities or RCE that were not market oriented

Through the competition analysis, working group reached the mutual conclusion that services need to be improved in order to keep the present and expand the base with new members, especially when it comes to introduction of new services to attract the existing sectorial business associations.

Based on working group discussion, the RCE Nis business profile in 2015 could be described like this:

• Members feel they belong to RCE Nis as the Chamber recognises and foresees their needs.
• RCE Nis is a leading partner to the local government regarding mutual activities related to regulations that can influence enabling environment for the development of economy in the region.
• RCE Nis is a significant regional business organization that can advocate for its members’ needs with Serbian Chamber of Economy, Ministries in charge and Government. RPK.
• Expanded Portfolio of services according to market demands.
• Established Functional Centre for Regional and Cross-Border Projects Development and Management
• Decentralization of certain functions and responsibilities by Serbian Chamber of Economy
• Easy access to funds for entrepreneurs of Nisava Region

During the second day, strategic meeting participants analysed the influence of internal factors on RCE Nis functioning, and they concluded the following needs to be done:

• Improvement of the organizational solutions and capacities of employees according to the needs of members and market demands.
• Improvement of visibility and image of the Chamber through constant updates of web presentation and database of members. More intensive presence in media.
• Yearly Surveys of Chamber members’ opinions (satisfaction) on advocacy for their needs with representatives of local and national governments, and quality of its services. 

Through the Vision that the Nisava Region should become the most developed region in Serbia, participants agreed that the RCE Nis can overcome the challenges of internal and external environments and become the creator of better business environment in Nisava Region and generator of development of South East Serbia.

The following areas that demand special attention in order to improve RCE Nis functioning as soon as possible were marked as priorities:

• Lobbying
• Services
• Communication

Having in mind all the external and internal challenges RCE Nis Management and employees are facing, the new Management of RCE aspires to prepare and adopt the Members Advocacy Strategy in 2010 document, based on members’ needs. Chamber would then be able to actively participate in preparations of the draft Law, lobby with local and/or national Government and thus influence creation and adoption of the new legislations, as well as changes of the existing laws and amendments, that are significantly influencing the enabling business environment for big companies, SMEs and entrepreneurs.  As far as operations are concerned, RCE Nis will work on Expert Team forming that would then advocate for members with local and/or national Government.

The improvement in RCE Nis image can be seen through the decision of the City of Nis to re-establish the Economic Council and accept two representatives from Chamber to the Council.

Ongoing Chamber activities consist of networking / initiating the business cooperation with other business organizations in the country and worldwide, improvement of organizational performances and creation of plans for further job-related training of all its employees. 

Participants agreed that the process of RCE Nis functioning improvement should be considered through the monitoring of the following success criteria:

• Increase in the number of RCE Members
• Services quality improvement
• Increase in the number of services users
• More intensive presence in media
• Managing the activities with support of the specially projected information system based on the organizational structure of RCE Nis

Participants of the meeting agreed that the RCE Development Strategy, according to the defined priorities, should be adopted and implemented as soon as possible in order to establish the efficient development of RCE Nis.

The presentation of DI Deputy Director General, Ms. Berit Vinther and her associates on Organization, structure and leadership in DI particularly contributed to successful implementation of the meeting.