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Who We Are?
We are the largest representative body of businesspeople in the Czech Republic. We assert and protect your interests.
The Czech Chamber of Commerce is the largest and the most representative business association in the Czech Republic. It has more than 16,000 members organized in 59 regional chambers and in nearly 130 branch associations.
The Czech Chamber of Commerce is the only legal representative of Czech entrepreneurs. Its activity is set by law – in Act No. 301/1992 Coll. on the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic. The aforementioned legal standard states that the Czech Chamber of Commerce protects the interests of Czech entrepreneurs from all regions and from all sectors except agriculture, food and forestry (this activity is performed by the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic).
The Czech Chamber of Commerce’s mission is to create opportunities for entrepreneurship, to promote and support measures that contribute to the development of business environment in the Czech Republic and thus to the overall economic stability of the state.
The Czech Chamber of Commerce formulates the Action Plan of the Czech Chamber of Commerce every year or, in other words, it formulates the priorities of the Czech Chamber of Commerce for the given period. The Action Plan is a set of key measures advocated by the leadership of the Czech Chamber of Commerce in relation to state or local administrations. It reflects the main interest of the membership which is to improve the conditions of the business environment.
Crafts at the Chamber
- We are actively pursuing the increase in the authority and prestige of the crafts and craftsmen themselves.
- We are taking part in the drafting and improvement of laws and regulations that influence doing business. We aim for their simplification, unification, and reduction of the administrative burden.
- We cooperate on the creation and change of the technical norms and good practice rules.
- We coordinate the approach of our members towards problem solving, we formulate joint statements which we systematically influence by our participation in both public and expert discussions, and we submit our own draft documents and interventions.
- We cooperate with the educational institutions on the training of new craftsmen, we support the increase in the professional qualification of pedagogues, we advocate for reestablishment of the so called “foreman exam” and the lifelong education of the craftsmen.
Network
The Czech Chamber of Commerce is made up of parts organized in the regional and professional segments of the Chamber.
Regional Network
The Czech Chamber of Commerce is currently constituted by 14 regional and 45 district chambers of commerce.
Professional Network
Professional segment is composed of nearly 130 trade associations, unions and other sector-focused bodies.
Sections and Working Groups
Operational platforms for professional discussions which formulate opinions of the Chamber. More than 800 experts are involved.
Sections are advisory bodies to the Chamber Board, they are composed of members and relevant experts.
Legislation
We influence business environment in the Czech Republic through commenting procedure.
The Czech Chamber of Commerce is, in accordance with the Legislative Rules of Procedure of the Government, a mandatory point of reference for materials concerning the legal regulation of business. Comments can be made by the members of the Chamber as part of an inter-ministerial commenting procedure which deals with both legislative (national laws, EU regulations and directives) and non-legislative (reports, concepts, action plans, documents of the European Semester) materials.
Commerce and Services
The Czech Chamber of Commerce provides entrepreneurs with a range of services to support their economic and mainly their business activities in order to increase the demand of their goods and services on the market. Above all, the services provided are the ATA carnets, certificates, extracts and excerpts from the state’s public and non-public registries – Czech POINT, electronic tolls, securing consular legalization of export documents, certificates of legal nature, assistance in recruiting foreign workers (from Montenegro, the Philippines, India, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Serbia, etc.).
Chamber network
The Czech Chamber of Commerce helps Czech businesspeople enter foreign markets. We help Czech companies assert their business goals and interests abroad, inform them about the conditions of entering various foreign markets, and support their search and establishment of contacts with their potential business partners abroad. Lastly, we enable their participation in various international events aimed at medium and small sized companies.
Foreign Relations
Foreign business missions
- We organize business missions accompanying government and state officials of the Czech Republic which often include organizing business forums and finding the appropriate partners for networking and potential cooperation as well. We also organize informal meetings of businesspeople with state representatives such as the President, Speakers of both Chambers of the Parliament, the Prime Minister, ministers, etc.
- We organize bilateral business meetings abroad without the participation of any official representatives of the Czech Republic. These meetings are organized with cooperating foreign business associations with the aim of finding strategic partners for the Czech businesspeople.
- We organize visits of the international trade fairs where we secure the bilateral meetings of Czech companies and their foreign counterparts. We ensure registration in catalogues of exhibitors for the Czech companies as well.
Events organized in the Czech Republic
- We welcome business delegations accompanying representatives of foreign countries and organize business forums and seminars followed by contact meetings. For those events we invite Czech companies based on the foreign companies’ profiles that are interested in finding new business partners. Events can also be organized online.
- We organize seminars, round tables, and similar business meetings aimed at particular territories or issues. Presenting at these events are often experts for export financing, taxes and tariffs, legal aspects, logistics, intercultural aspects, trade ethics, etc.
Engagement in the EU and national development program
- We are engaging in programs for small and medium sized companies within the EU. Those programs present effective and financially advantageous establishment and development of business contacts and business activities on the basis of previously prepared contact meetings. They support export, cooperation in production, opening of branch offices abroad, cooperation on third markets, etc. The Czech Chamber of Commerce is a national coordinator of those programs, e.g. Asia Invest, East Invest, EuroMed Invest and others.
- We also participate in programs of national development cooperation, mainly the Aid for Trade, which enables businesspeople to respond to opportunities in the priority territories of the development cooperation (Ethiopia, Mongolia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Moldova and other countries).
Chamber Leaders
The present form and structure of the Chamber is determined by the aforementioned Act No. 301/1992 Coll. The President of the Czech Chamber of Commerce is the statutory head of the Chamber. This post is currently occupied by Mr. Zdeněk Zajíček, who was elected by the Assembly of the Czech Chamber of Commerce, which means he was directly elected by members of the Chamber. The working body is the Presidium which is made up of the President and Vice Presidents. Each of the Vice Presidents is entrusted with a responsibility within which he or she is therefore engaged and carries out his or her activities in the Chamber. The managing authority of the Czech Chamber of Commerce is the Board of Directors. The Supervisory Board is established as a control body, while the Conciliation Commission’s main task is to resolve any disputes between the members. The term of office is three years.
The Office of the Czech Chamber of Commerce is the executive body of the Chamber. The Secretary General, who is appointed and dismissed by the Board of Directors of the Chamber, is responsible for its activities. The current Secretary General is Mr. Ladislav Minčič. The Office ensures through its Departments the fulfilment of tasks arising from the competence of the Chamber according to the law and according to the current priorities and tasks, approved by the Board of Directors or by the General Assembly of the Czech Chamber of Commerce.
History of the Czech Chamber of Commerce
The current Chamber of Commerce closely follows the activities of not only pre-war trade and industrial chambers, trade associations and other self-governing business associations, but its history is also closely related to the history of the chambers of commerce of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Those chambers were established on the basis of Act No. 122 of the Reich Code dated back to March 18th, 1850, when all chambers of commerce were gradually established throughout the territory of Austria-Hungary.
In the trade field, the Chamber refers to the historical legacy of medieval guilds, whose roots date back to the 14th century, to the reign of Charles IV., and even earlier. At that time, the first guilds began to emerge in the cities of the Czech kingdom, associating and representing the interests of individual craft professions. Masons, stonemasons, tailors, shoemakers, cart-wrights, plate armour makers, and potters had their own guild. It is precisely the protection and representation of the interests of craft trades which links the former guilds with today’s Chamber of Commerce’s mission. Modern guilds are part of the Chamber.