Today, the German Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo (GCCK), with the support of GIZ, has brought to Kosovo Olaf Holzgrefe, the director of BME (Supply Chain, Procurement and Logistics Management Association), where he met with Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Faton Thaçi.
Mr. Holzegrefe revealed the association’s history, add stated that BME has over 9500 individual and corporate members – from small businesses to large companies. In 2010, the purchasing volume of BME members amounted to 1.25 trillion euros, representing about half of the gross domestic product (GDP) in Germany.
In May of this year, the BME, in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Economy and Energy and the German Chamber of Commerce (DIHK), organized the third "Purchasing Initiative Western Balkans" conference in Belgrade. The conference, which will be organized also in 2018, was initiated by the German government as a continuation of the Berlin process to support the economic development of Western Balkan countries. German companies through this initiative are encouraged to find suppliers in the Western Balkan countries. So far, only one company from Kosovo has participated in B2B meetings at this conference.
GCCK Director, Nora Hasani, says such initiatives should become even more popular in order to rise the interest of Kosovo businesses to participate.
“The GCCK aims to make this initiative of the German government more familiar to the business community in order to qualify more Kosovar producers for next year to participate in B2B meetings which be held within this conference," says Nora Hasani.
Deputy Minister Thaçi initially welcomed Mr. Holzgrefe and said that this initiative is welcomed to our country, because it is a bridge between Kosovo and the countries of the region and Europe. He pointed out that the Ministry of Trade and Industry has a list of businesses according to economic activities that we could send these information through the German Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo, so that our businesses could be better represented at the conference which will be held in Frankfurt, where Kosovar businesses would have the opportunity to communicate with other business (B2B meetings), to promote their products and as a result of this direct communication will be created the possibility of exporting their products to countries in the region and the world.
At the end of this lunch meeting, Deputy Minister Thaçi thanked Mr. Holzgrefe for opening up opportunities for mutual cooperation between the Republic of Kosovo and the state of Germany.