The Chamber of Commerce in Prague (CCP) was established in 1994 for the aim of supporting and helping the small and medium enterprises in Prague and within the whole Czech Republic, along with defending their interests. The Chamber provides its services not only to its members but also to other Czech entrepreneurs. The CCP closely cooperates with public and private authorities, mainly with the Prague City Hall, Czech Chamber of Commerce, local and regional Chambers of Commerce and with several partners abroad.
The CCP emphasizes on the developing of business contacts with foreign partners, preferably with Chambers of Commerce or Industry, to supply the Czech firms with the most appropriate partners for making business abroad and, on the contrary, to facilitate the implementation and orientation of foreign companies on the Czech market.
Within the CCP, several professional departments can be found, such as Tourism, Transport, European Union and international cooperation, Small and medium enterprises, Construction sector and regional development, Trade section and others, from which members are as well the advisory body for the members of the Prague City Hall. The activities of the CCP are led through these different departments.
The key activities of the Chamber of Commerce in Prague are the information points for entrepreneurs, SME rating, grant consulting, conciliation committee, assurance services and CzechPOINT, consultancy in data boxes and booking system within the adventure tourism.
The Chamber of Commerce in Prague has already been a coordinator of several different projects over the last years, mainly oriented towards integration/reintegration, entrepreneurial skills development, staff skills & business development.
- This includes, inter-alia a project on private entrepreneurship as an effective way of re-integration of women in the labour market, during which one of the activity was the supervision and coordination of the project implementation team, which focused on the return of Mothers to the labour market after parental leave. Advice and reviews the basics of business topics.
- Since 2011, the CCP is coordinating a programme focusing on the reintegration of people leaving the Nové Sedlo prison. This encompasses the supervision and coordination of the project team which focuses on education and the subsequent reintegration of persons who are preparing for return from the Nové Sedlo prison. The CCP is coordinating this project along with the coordination of exactly the same project concerning the Horní Slavkov prison.
- Since 2010, the CCP is also coordinating a project focusing on the training of employees and private entrepreneurs in the Prague. In this frame, one of the activities carried out by the CCP is the training of small businesses and their employees, along with realization of courses focusing on finance, law and IT.
- Finally, the CCP was jointly coordinated a project called “Craft still alive” with the Municipality of Prague between 2010 and 2013, which focused on the improvement of vocational craft education in Prague.
- The most successful finished projects include the “Entrepreneur academy”, the project which has offered 115 different education courses in three thematic blocks – IT skills, soft skills, finances and law. After two years of the project implementation, 872 entrepreneurs and self-employed persons took part in the project and have completed at least one of the courses.
- Another successful project was called “Equal opportunities”. The project provided help to new and start-up entrepreneurs as well as job applicants with dependent family member. The project also focused on endangered women in the job market. This project supported 120 people by educating them to improve their qualification in order to find their place on the job market.
- The Chamber of Commerce in Prague also has many ongoing projects. It is especially the “Entrepreneur 2.0 project“. The project is implemented with 6 foreign partners from Greece, Turkey, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and Lithuania. The project is focused on creating the network of partner institutions and on sharing technological tools in the area of Web 2.0, which helps start-up entrepreneurs to streamline their business and marketing activities.
- Other activities of the Chamber of Commerce in Prague include the project called “Informational sites for entrepreneurs” aiming at providing important information for companies or entrepreneurs in connection with the Czech republic entering the EU in 2004, the project called “MSP rating” which provides ranking of the economic health of the entrepreneurs with the focus on the MSP or the already finished “EuroChamber” project aimed at networking with the companies abroad and getting contacts on foreign entrepreneurs.
- Other finished projects included “Raising the adaptability of the employees“, which provided training courses for more than 2200 employees on the topics like managing skills, stress handling or IT skills or the project “Partnership for sustainable production and services” providing connection between small and medium-sized businesses and development workplaces, colleges, specialized consulting firms, and specialized supplier companies. The aim was to join forces and skills on the basis of the guarantees of achieving savings and repaying the investments from the savings (Performance Contracting) in order to reveal and utilize the existing potential for innovations in the area of sustainable production and services.
- The project named “Technical Prague” allowed all Prague citizens and visitors to enter previously inaccessible locations. The goal was to teach important Prague firms how to make presentations using modern and historical technological devices by entertaining, unconventional method – adventure tourism.
- Another project which ended in 2013 is “Program for children from children houses”, which focused on improving chances of these children in the job market.