News & Events

Delegation from the Ministry of Trade and Services of the Republic of Serbia

The delegation from the Ministry of Trade and Services of the Republic of Serbia spent one week in Chicago (November 7th - 14th) on the mission of exploring opportunities to promote trade between the United States and Serbia. The primary focus of their study trip was to advance the National Brand of Serbia project. While our Consulate in Chicago was their official host, the Serbian-American Chamber of Commerce organized a special meeting at the Serbian Cultural and Arts Center St. Sava with the Serbian business community in the Chicago land and the subject matter experts in this field.

The delegation from Belgrade included: Mr. Ljubisa Dimitrijevic, State Secretary, Mr. Sasa Gmijovic, Deputy Minister, and Mr. Strahinja Djuricanin , Head of Group for National Brand of Serbia. Welcome greetings and introduction speeches given by Mr. Zoran Golubovic, the President of the SACC, Mr. Desko Nikitovic, Consul General, and M. Ljubisa Dimitrijevic, State Secretary were followed by the very informative multi-media presentations. Mr. Vladimir Seizovic, the President of The Delos Company, presented specific services that his company and his partners can offer to help promote Serbian products and companies in North America. Mr. Patrick Capriati, Senior Marketing Promotion Officer at the Italian Trade Commission impressed the audience with his organization's accomplishments and activities in North America, and its approach to promoting Italian businesses.

SACC Business Social Event

The "Business Social" couldn't be a better title to capture the purpose and atmosphere at the event held at the Serbian Cultural Center Saint Sava last Monday evening. The Chicago local business community had a chance to learn about the support currently available for starting and growing business in Serbia from the presentations given by the representatives from Agrobanka – Mr. Milan Antonic (Executive Director Assistant) and Mr. Igor Nestorovic (Director, Diaspora Affairs Development), Center for Entrepreneurship and Executive Development - Ms. Ivana Jovanovic (Executive Director), and Small Enterprise Assistance Funds – Mr. James Sosnicky (Director). Mr. Desko Nikitovic, Counsul General once again expressed his support for the important work of the Serbian American Chamber of Commerce, and he talked about future economic activities of the Consulate office in Chicago. The new "Advisory Board" of SACC was announced and its first new members were introduced. The official part of the program was followed by a quite pleasant atmosphere of enjoying food, drinks and acoustic live music entertainment that lasted throughout the late evening hours. It was a perfect opportunity to meet old friends and to create new business contacts!

The delegation from the Ministry of Trade and Services of the Republic of Serbia spent one week in Chicago (November 7th - 14th) on the mission of exploring opportunities to promote trade between the United States and Serbia. The primary focus of their study trip was to advance the National Brand of Serbia project. While our Consulate in Chicago was their official host, the Serbian-American Chamber of Commerce organized a special meeting at the Serbian Cultural and Arts Center St. Sava with the Serbian business community in the Chicago land and the subject matter experts in this field.

The delegation from Belgrade included: Mr. Ljubisa Dimitrijevic, State Secretary, Mr. Sasa Gmijovic, Deputy Minister, and Mr. Strahinja Djuricanin , Head of Group for National Brand of Serbia. Welcome greetings and introduction speeches given by Mr. Zoran Golubovic, the President of the SACC, Mr. Desko Nikitovic, Consul General, and M. Ljubisa Dimitrijevic, State Secretary were followed by the very informative multi-media presentations. Mr. Vladimir Seizovic, the President of The Delos Company, presented specific services that his company and his partners can offer to help promote Serbian products and companies in North America. Mr. Patrick Capriati, Senior Marketing Promotion Officer at the Italian Trade Commission impressed the audience with his organization's accomplishments and activities in North America, and its approach to promoting Italian businesses.

The Q&A session brought quite a lively discussion from the audience, including some concrete remarks and suggestions that our guests even took notes of. As always after these type of events, the socializing portion was a great opportunity for exchanging opinions and making important business contacts.

Award of Excellence

Cook County has honored our organization with the Award of Excellence for promoting international business in the Chicagoland area.

Business and Investment Opportunities in Southeast Europe

The first event of this kind with the purpose of promoting business investment opportunities in the selected countries of the Southeast Europe. The program included a panel presentations and moderated discussion from the official representatives at the Consul level of the six countries: Bosnia and Hercegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, and Turkey. The conference was organized by the American Southeast Europe Chamber of Commerce and Baker & McKenze LLP. Serbian American Chamber of Commerce was one of the principle partners for this event.

An evening of Art, French Cuisine, and Music was an absolute success by every measure! The organizers were exceptionally pleased that all of the seats were taken in a cozy interior of the Theatre Café. Our guest artist, Dr. Gordana Nenadovic-Milivojcevic presented her beautiful paintings and icons, many of which were sold through the silent auction. One lucky guest received painting as a gift from Dr. Nenadovic. The Serbian-American Chamber of Commerce received a few new membership registrations, and more are expected to come as the result of this occasion. A very good food and some really nice music would probably bring the same guests back to Theatre Café. Once again, hard work by the Board of Directors has paid off. However, this time most of the credit for putting together this successful event goes to Mr. Jovan Ignjatovic who has recently joined the SACC, and who brought a new wave of activities and energy to the organization.

Dear Members and Friends,
Please join us for our

SACC Holiday Social at the St. Sava Club

Sunday, December 13, 6pm

Serbian Cultural and Arts Center St. Sava
448 W. Barry Ave., Chicago, IL 60657

The Serbian-American Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors has decided to organize a casual gathering instead of our regular monthly meeting. Let's finish the year of SACC's active work and good results in a relax atmosphere and Holiday spirit. The entrance is free, and your friends are welcome too.

Hope to see you all on December 13th at the St. Sava Club!

The Serbian American Chamber of Commerce hosted the first "Chicago ExporTeams and Doing Business with Serbia" conference. Along with launching the "Chicago ExporTeams" initiative to facilitate information sharing, networking, and collaboration among Chicagoland-based international trade and business organizations, this event was primarily focused on promoting the great opportunities that exist for trade and investment in Serbia.

Plenty of useful information and interesting presentations, a very good turnout, and excellent technical facilities of the Rolling Meadows Convention Center made this event a success beyond the organizers' expectations.

The presence of the following honorable guests certainly brought the event to a higher level: Congresswoman Melissa Bean, Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia Mr. Vladimir Petrovic, Consul General of Republic of Serbia Mr. Desko Nikitovic, Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince of Serbia Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine, and the Mayor of Rolling Meadows, Mr. Kenneth Nelson.

The principal participants included: Ms. Robin Mugford from U.S. Department of Commerce, Ms. Dasha Djukic, Executive Director of the International Business Club, Ms. Vesna Peric, Director of the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA), and Mr. Igor Nestorovic, Director of Agrobanka - Diaspora Business Development.

Serbian American Chamber of Commerce presented the "Small Business Advocate Award" to the keynote speaker, Congresswoman Melissa Bean.

Agrobanka (Belgrade, Serbia) - The Bank of DIASPORA was the general sponsor.

This was certainly the biggest event of the year in the Serbian-American business community!

The President of Serbia, Mr. Boris Tadic expressed support for the Serbian American Chamber of Commerce during his meetings in Cleveland, Ohio.

President Tadic expressed hope that American investors will continue to find Serbia an attractive place to make money!

Promoting SACC program and activities in Belgrade, Serbia.

During his recent visit to Serbia, Mr. Zoran Golubovich, President of the SACC, had numerous meetings with the relevant institutions, ministries and businesses in Serbia, including Serbian Chamber of Commerce, Embassy of the US in Belgrade, Ministry of Trade and Services, Ministry of Economy and Regional Development, University of Belgrade (Rektorat), and SIEPA. Mr. Golubovich was accompanied at some of those meetings with two SACC Directors, Ms. Tamara Vesna and Mr. Nenad Simeunovic.

The SACC has received a strong support and endorsement for its program and activities, along with the interest expressed by the organizations listed above in the future collaboration.

The Serbian-American Chamber of Commerce (SACC) held its first monthly meeting on June 7th, 2009 at the Serbian Cultural and Arts Center St. Sava in Chicago.

The turnout was very good, with both old and new (prospect) members, representing a variety of professional businesses. The members of the Board of Directors were pleased to hear a lot of positive feedback received after presenting the new SACC business concept and plans for the future projects and activities. There was a sincere feeling that something new is happening, and there was obvious excitement among both older and younger attendees.

Perhaps the best summary of the meeting's success would be to quote our Consul General, Mr. Desko Nikitovic, who called the meeting "historic", and he pointed out that the SACC organization has a bigger chance to succeed than any other Serbian organization!".

Consul General, Mr. Desko Nikitovic welcomed the new SACC Board of Directors.

SACC in VESTI [Serbian only]