Over the past year, the Scottish Chamber Network committed to help Scottish businesses to grow internationally through the International Trade Partnership (ITP) and Local Export Partnership (LEP) funded by the Scottish Government.

In April, the Scottish Government commended the successful results achieved through the 18 months of the ITP project: 27 MoUs have been signed with international organisations across the world (including China, Ireland, Italy, India, Norway, Poland, U.S., Germany etc.), more than 25 international workshops and 12 trade missions overseas have been organised (including destinations such as New-York, Berlin, Munich, Milan, Dublin etc.)

Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce highly contributed to these achievements as we signed 8 MoUs, organised two trade missions and helped over 350 local businesses progress to the next stage of their international journey. As such, by the beginning of 2019, we are expecting 15 businesses to have entered new international markets (Ireland, Germany, Canada and India).

Thanks to the LEP, we continue to offer companies a wide range of international support including:

• Market information, every month we organise events, seminar and workshops focused on key market.
• Sign-posting, we work closely with many partners, such as Scottish Development International and Business Gateway, and can introduce you to relevant contacts who can provide additional support depending on your requirements.
• Access to COBCOE Connects, an innovative digital platform that allows you to find partners, distributors, suppliers and buyers worldwide.
• Export documentation support and advises.
• Bi-monthly international newsletter and LinkedIn group allowing us to promote our members’ global successes and inform them about the latest international business news.

We are hosting a rich and varied awareness programme in the autumn. Our upcoming events include workshops on Global E-commerce with DHL (9^th of October) and business opportunities in the UAE (23^rd of October) as well as roundtables with a senior ICT delegation from Luxembourg (29^th of October) and the Belgium’s Minister of Foreign Affairs (13^th of November).

We collaborate with leading organisations through our sponsorship scheme, therefore, if your company provides high level expertise in international trade regulations, risks and logistics, we would be delighted to hear from you.

For any questions regarding our international support and activities, please get in touch with: Sophie-lou.arceselenir@edinburghchamber.co.uk

What businesses say about our recent international events?

“I thought it was a Canadian roundtable was a very worthwhile session and Her Excellency was extremely engaging. This conversation was on top of one with the US Ambassador when he was in Edinburgh last week which resulted indirectly from an earlier Edinburgh Chamber event that we attended. So – I am definitely a fan of these sessions!” – Rob Thomsom, Airborne & Space Systems Division, VP Commercial at Leonardo.