The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Canada – West is a non-profit, membership-based organization with a mandate of facilitating trade and investment between Italy and Canada with a special focus on British Columbia and Alberta. ICCC was founded in Vancouver in 1992, incorporated under the BC Society Act in 1994 and achieved recognition by the Italian Governament in 1996. We opened an office in Edmonton in March of 2003 and a Calgary office in April 2005. We currently have 250 members.
We are one of the most active and respected bilateral trade organizations in Western Canada. ICCC's mandate is to promote and assist bilateral trade between Italy and Canada by acting as a service-centre for providing information, contacts, organizing missions to fairs and conventions and generally acting as a catalyst between economic operators here and in Italy. In addition, we regularly host various incoming delegations from both business and government sectors and we organize regular networking events for members. Moreover, we have been awarded open tenders by the European Commission to organize activities to promote awareness of the European Union in Canada and to stimulate linkages between the two areas.
The worldwide network – 72 Chambers in 44 countries & 25,000 members
ICCC, formally recognized by the Italian Government, forms part of an international network of 72 international Italian Chambers of Commerce spread throughout the world in 44 countries. The 72 Chambers are divided into macro areas (Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia, Australia, North America, Mercosur, Caribbean & Patto Andino) each with a representative who sits on the board of Assocamerestero. More than 25,000 enterprises are presently enrolled with the network of international Italian Chambers of Commerce; of these 70% are local firms interested in different forms of mutual exchange with Italy. Each year, the international Italian Chambers of Commerce network develops more than 270,000 business contacts, enhancing economical relationships between Italy and the world by promoting business contacts with the goal of :
- facilitating access of Italian companies to global markets and foreign companies to the Italian market;
- promoting the establishment of long term industrial and/or commercial cooperation agreements between Italian and international companies;
- attraction of foreign investments to Italy through territorial marketing projects and dissemination of foreign investment opportunities among Italian companies;
- identification of professional & specialized know-how;
- lobbying and communications activities towards local business and institutional authorities;
- promotion of incoming and outgoing tourism;
- creating cultural linkages complementary to business activities and exchanges.
Working directly with other international Italian Chambers of Commerce on projects gives us the ability to access business and institutional networks in each of the 44 countries in which an Italian Chamber is operational.
The network in Italy – 5,000,000 members in 103 Chambers
The network of international Italian Chambers of Commerce is linked directly to the network of Italian Chambers of Commerce within Italy. Chambers in Italy differ radically from Chambers in North America and elsewhere in that every single company in Italy, by law, must be a member of its local Chamber of Commerce. The Chambers of Commerce in Italy are organized as follows :
- 103 Provincial Chambers, one in every major city - “Provincia”;
- 158 branch offices of Provincial Chambers;
- 134 special agencies;
- 21 Regional Union offices;
- 13 Regional Foreign Trade offices;
- 64 European Desks.
