The winners of a competition established to find the most effective and innovative chamber of commerce products were announced on Friday during the second edition of CCIPRO, a unique market place for exchanging best practice, expertise and services amongst the French chamber of commerce community.

ICC's World Chambers Federation (WCF) was a member of the jury to choose winners and WCF Director Anthony Parkes was at the award ceremony to announce the winners in the following categories:

• Company creation, mergers and acquisitions
  Winner: CCI Lyon
  Project:  C-Cible 
  
• Business development
  Winner: RCCI Limousin Poitou-Charentes
  Project: Quality control charter for skilled tradesmen
  
• Community programmes
  Winner: CCI Lille Metropole
  Project: T&S Applica seminars
  
• Local/regional economic development
  Winner: PDE PRO
  Project: CCI Grenoble
  
• Chamber performance
  Winner: Assembly of French Chambers of Comerce and Industry (ACFCI)
  Project: Territoires et services

Special recognition was also given by the jury to CCI Grenoble for their project  Achatville.com

First held in 2004, CCIPRO is an initiative of a consortium of leading metropolitan and regional chambers of commerce in France. Such initiatives are valuable peer learning opportunities and essential to public and private law chambers, providing a rare showcase of potential new services chambers can deliver to their local business communities.

In many countries, including much of continental Europe, businesses are required by law to belong to the relevant chamber of commerce. Those chambers of commerce are called public law chambers of commerce.

Public law chambers face significant challenges, particularly when their status is changed from public law to private law (voluntary membership system) as is the case currently in Slovenia. As a result, public law chambers are becoming more exigent in the quality of services they provide.

The challenges currently facing public law chambers will be addressed during a special session at the 5th World Chambers Congress to be held in July 2007 in Istanbul.

CCIPRO 2006 took place on 29-30 June in Lille, France. It was open for the first time to international delegates.and attracted over 300 participants from seven countries. The event was organized by 12 French chambers: Bordeaux, Grenoble, Lille Métropole, Loiret, Lyon, Morbihan, Nantes St Nazaire, Nice Côte d'Azur, Rennes, Toulouse, Versailles Val-D'Oise/Yvelines and the French national chamber. It is also supported by the Assembly of French Chambers of Commerce & Industry.

At CCIPRO, chambers discovered 59 new and practical concepts, processes and toolkits developed by French chambers to support their activities. Information on the range of products and services promoted is available in English through the CCIPRO website and catalogue.

For more information on CCIPRO, please contact:

Florence Roussel or Didier Copin
Tel : +33 3 20 63 77 99
ccipro@lille.cci.fr
www.ccipro.fr

Click here for information on ICC's World Chambers Federation or the World Chambers Congress 2007