The second session of “Business Days in Gomel” on October 29 united 62 participants from 15 countries on the online resource shared their experience of working in the new economic conditions, conclusions, measures taken and successful decisions on the online resource bizgomel.by.
The topic of discussion – current formats for holding international events, new opportunities and markets for business, maintaining and expanding contacts during a global pandemic – aroused genuine interest among all participants of the session.
Head of the CIS Markets Department of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (Zagreb) Susanna Knezhevich introduced projects adapted to work in virtual space and launched last spring in order to support the work of 130 thousand companies – members of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce. The products created within the framework of the projects are focused on informing about the conditions of doing business, investing in Croatia and finding partners.
An example of the active use of virtual platforms is the electronic trading of the Belarusian Universal Exchange. Grigory Ginsar, director of the Gomel branch of the exchange, informed about the specifics of working on effective online resources.
“At the beginning of 2020, we also did not understand how to do business, how to support our enterprises,” admitted Viktoria Ostroumova, President of the Kherson Chamber of Commerce and Industry. – “We decided to register our YouTube channel and started recording videos, interviewing members of the chamber. The main motto of these issues is to use the new economic situation as a chance. And now this video base is a kind of “export school”, which informs about the services of our chamber, helps and explains the features of the activity. So, expanding the subject of traditional services of the Chamber with videos about art and history, we are promoting the image of our region”.
BelCCI representative in Belgium Jeroom Joos, speaking about the situation in the country, noted that business understands that the consequences of the pandemic will be felt for several more years. 75% of companies believe that they will be able to operate as they used to. But a quarter of the respondents believe that they will have to completely retrain. We are talking about restaurants, aviation, food manufacturers. Jeroom Joos considers it important to learn to work remotely and build this strategy for the long term.
Petr Pashaly, having impressive experience in the chamber of Gagauzia, and now the director of Budjak-ExpoBusiness LLC said that at the beginning of this year they organized an investment forum. The forum has shown its productivity, giving the enterprises of Gagauzia a chance to find partners in current conditions. Moreover in Moldova is created an exhibition platform, forming a virtual exhibition for the presentation of business and the search for new markets.
Continuing the discussion, in which shared their opinions also participants from UAE, Israel, Ukraine, Australia, all the participants noted the importance of the issues stated in the “Business Days in Gomel” and the expedience of the creation of the platform “Gomel Pro Business” bizgomel.by. This modern tool is used by many companies and gives the possibility to represent business, products and services to the widest audience of potential partners anywhere in the world.
At the end of the session, a Protocol of Intentions was signed between the Gomel branch of the BelCCI and the exhibition company Shanghai BD International exhibition CO (China).
Organizers would like to express deep gratitude to all participants and speakers for their support and suggestions. We invite you to continue the dialogue!
