25/4 Expats Golf Trophy

The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg has the pleasure to invite you to the 3rd Edition of the Expats Golf Trophy that will take place next Wednesday 25th April at the Golf Club d’Hulencourt.

The event is exclusive for members of the Chamber. Among the invitees, there will be numerous golf players expats in Belgium and members of other Chambers as well as representatives of the diplomatic body and international companies. In addition, for the non-professionals, an initiation course will be organized. After the tournament, a networking-cocktail and the awards ceremony will take place.

The members who wish to participate at the golf tournament or who want to introduce themselves in playing golf must register through the reply form found here: www.expatsgolftrophy.be

Do not hesitate to contact Diego Tasso for further information (diego.tasso@vaav.eu)

You can find the full program of the event in the following link. 

This event is organized in collaboration with:

Board of Directors of the Chamber meeting

The Board of Directors of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg held a meeting last 7th September in the headquarters of the Chamber in Brussels.

During the meeting, the Board named Mr. Miguel Ángel Arrimadas García as Treasurer of the Chamber for a period of three years and Mr. Rafael Chamorro Marín, Director of the Spanish Tourism Office was officially introduced as the new Institutional Vocal of the Board.

The Secretary General informed about the Chamber’s upcoming events, highlighting the organization of the DS Brussels Fashion Days- Spanish Edition and the annual Gala Dinner, which this year will be organized in collaboration with Leading Brands of Spain Forum.

Registration for French for business course open until September 8th

The use of French language for business has become more relevant in the past decades and it has become one of the most spoken languages in European and international institutions, besides it being one of the official languages in Belgium.

Therefore, the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg is organizing French for business courses, which will take place from September 18th until November 8th and aims to facilitate conducting business in French. During this course some very relevant professional skills will be developed like, for example, keeping correspondence, developing a negotiation or resolving conflicts.

The mentioned courses will be composed by small groups of 3 to 7 persons and will be given by native and highly-qualified teachers.

If you would like to register, click here.

Do not hesitate to check out the program on the following link.

 

Practical information

Dates: from September 18th to November 8th
Where: headquarters of the Chamber in Brussels (Rue Belliard 20, 1º)

Number of students: from 3 to 7 people

Deadline for registration: 8th of September

The people interested in taking the courses will have to prove a B1 level in French. All participants will be required to pass a level test, which will be taken before the beginning of the course

General Ordinary Assembly 2017

Last 21st of June, the Chamber celebrated its 2017 General Ordinary Assembly, which took place at the Instituto Cervantes’ new headquarters in Brussels. For such an event Ms. Cecilia Yuste, Ambassador of Spain in Belgium and Honorary President of the Chamber, joined several members and representatives of Spanish public institutions who were also attending.

Juan Rodríguez-Villa Matons, President of the Chamber, welcomed all the attendees. He also congratulated Mr. José Gracia Barba, who has been recently elected as the Chamber’s Vice President in Luxembourg, and his predecessor, Mr. Sergio de Miguel-Jessel, on the great efforts endured during the establishment of the Chamber in Luxembourg in 2012, as well as its dedication to the Chamber ever since.

Afterwards, the Ambassador and Honorary President of the Chamber Ms. Cecilia Yuste, thanked all the attendees and the Chamber for its activities promoting commercial and cultural Spanish activities in Belgium. Mrs. Yuste also offered its support to the Chamber’s mission and restated its will to cooperate with initiatives to promote the “Spain Brand” like the Fiesta Nacional next October 12th.

The Assembly proceeded with the reading and following approval of the last General Extraordinary Assembly’s minutes, which took place on November 24th, 2016, by the Secretary-General, María Catalán. Once the minutes were approved, Ms. Catalán presented last year’s activities report. Among them, she highlighted the increase in members enrolled, commercial activities and events organized under the Business Circle tribune.

Moreover, she detailed the new workshops, the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs Program and the novelties in the communication department, which include new webpages and improvements in those already in place.

To finish with, the Secretary-General reviewed the activities developed by FEDECOM (Federation of Official Chambers of Commerce of Spain in Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania) and the upcoming activities for 2017.

After the approval of the list of members, Ms. Catalán exposed the annual account of 2016 to the Assembly. After a detailed explanation of the balance sheet and the outturn account, the annual account was approved unanimously by all the attendees.

Finally, the Secretary-General announced the candidatures received to replace the four committee members whose terms were over. Once they had all been presented to the audience, the Assembly proceeded to vote; resulting on the reelection for a new three-year term of:

Mr. Pablo López Álvarez (FTI Consulting)

Mr. Miguel Ángel Arrimadas García, in a personal capacity

Mr. David Luengo Riesco (Indra)

Mr. Carlos Rodríguez Cocina (Telefónica)

Furthermore, the Ambassador and the President thanked, in the name of all the attendees, Mr. Felipe Formariz, from the Spanish Tourism Office in Brussels as well as Institutional Board Member of the Chamber, for its support to the Chamber and its remarkable efforts during the past years.

Finally, the President of the Chamber and the Instituto Cervantes director, Mr. Felipe Santos, signed a collaboration agreement between both institutions to promote and strengthen the Spanish for business in Belgium and Luxembourg.

To close the Assembly, the attendees were greeted with a cocktail offered by Blasco Gourmet, a member company, at the Instituto Cervantes’ offices.

All the documentation relative to the 2017 General Ordinary Assembly will be at all the members’ disposal through the Chamber’s Intranet.

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Public sale of a Spanish State property in Brussels on the 16th of March

One property of the Spanish State in Brussels is now in public sale. It is located in rue Léopold Courouble 25, Avenue Eugène Demolder 47 – 1030 Brussels. The real estate complex consists on three buildings with courtyard and garden located in the residential area of Schaerbeek.

The auction will take place on the 16th of March of 2017 at 14:30PM in the Chamber I of the Maison des Notaires, which is situated in rue de la Montagne 30-34, 1000 Brussels.

For prior visists, contact with Mr. Rysman | Tel: 0475 61 80 54.

You can have further details about the property in this link.

Galicia-Flandes meeting about fishery issues

Last Tuesday 6th of December, in the headquarters of Vlaamse Visveiling, the institution that controls the fish markets of Zeebrugge, Oostende and Nieuwpoort, took place a meeting between representatives of Galician organizations and ship-owners and their Flemish counterparts. The event was organized by the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Foundation Galicia-Europa.

Johan Van de Steene, Director of the fish market (Vlaamse Visveiling), was in charge of the presentation of the trading system.

The Belgian Fisherman’s Association (Rederscentimg-20161207-wa0002-003rale) were represented by Emile Brouckert, Director of Rederscentrale (Oostend), who talked about the characteristics of the Belgian fishing fleet, their fishing areas and the relationship with Belgian and European authorities in relation to quotas and legislation. Brouckaert expressed his concern about sustainability, quotas and Brexit’s consequences.

The Galician delegation was accompanied by our President, Juan Rodríguez-Villa.

The Chamber, the  Galician Foundation and Delegation of Fisherman’ and shipowners would particularly like to thank you, the kindness, the explanations and the attention received from Jan Buisseret, Director of Business Development of Vlaamse Visveiling, who, speaking a perfect Spanish, was a key person for the success of the meeting.

How to mount an art exhibition step by step thanks to Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs

The young Spanish entrepreneur Natalia Domínguez and Annie Gentils, the owner of an art gallery in Anterwerp (Belgium), tell us their experiences after working together during three months thanks to an exchange of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneur (EYE) programme

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Preparations for an exhibition organised by Annie and Natalia.

Being more realistic is the main thing that Natalia, a 26 years old artist from Spain, has learned from Annie, an experimented entrepreneur who owes her own art gallery in Antwerp (Belgium). By working together in Annie’s gallery during three months, they have learned a lot from each other. Although Natalia had been assisting a gallery in Valencia during last year, her commitment in Belgium was bigger and she acquired more knowledge and experience.

She decided to go to Antwerp because she visited a friend who was working in the art field there and afterwards she started to think to go through a similar experience. “When I came here for the first time I realized this city was big enough but small enough at the same time to handle it without problems”, she says. In fact, it’s easier to get contacts in the art field than in a bigger city. After all, this is a very important culture hub in Belgium. Although she doesn’t speak Dutch -the local language- she didn’t have any problem to communicate in English.

Thanks to the Annie’s background, which began in the 80s, Natalia has learned how to mount an exhibition from the very beginning. Thus, she managed to get in touch with the contacts they needed, dealing with other entities and foundations, organizing all the details for the exhibition… In short, she got on-the-job experience in the art gallery. “It’s stressful because you must have everything planned in order to succeed”, she stated.

This exchange has also helped her to be more realistic. She is now aware she cannot run a gallery immediately, as she would need a partner. Therefore, in the following six months she would like to have a new experience in another art gallery to grow up as a professional: “Going out from my country is teaching me a lot both personally and professionally”.

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Annie’s art gallery located in Antwerp.

As part of her day to day, Natalia helped Annie on specific matters, like editing flyers and catalogues: “I’m not very good in designing and I still have to learn. In this sense, Natalia has been very useful for the gallery. “For instance, I went to an art fair in October and she made beautiful catalogues to promote the gallery there”, Annie recognizes. In the same way, the Spanish artist also improved the mailing of Annie’s work, which was helpful for the two exhibitions which took place during Natalia’s stay.

They both share that working together has been a positive experience, getting to do many different things. In the words of Annie, “managing an art gallery is very dynamic. One day you have to build up an exhibition and the other you have to get in touch with the artists, which is not always easy”.

Although she admits that she would have loved to stay longer, taking part in this exchange was important to Natalia as she is now more aware of the pros and cons of starting or expanding a project: “Through the experience of another person you can learn how you can improve it and question yourself if the idea you already had is feasible”.

This same thought is shared by the owner of the gallery, who highlights that she also went through a similar experience in the early 80s: “It was not easy to be an entrepreneur thirty years ago”. For Annie, it has been a pleasure to work with people who are so engaged building their projects: “I’m really enthusiastic about this program and I am open to host other new entrepreneurs in the future”.

Meeting of the Chamber with La Maison de l’Entreprise and Spanish entrepreneurs

The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg met last November 29 with La Maison de l’Entreprise representatives. This coworking space located in Mons hosted during three weeks a group of Spanish entrepreneurs, who also came to the meeting, in order to accelerate the development of their projects and helping them to make contacts in Belgium.

The Chamber presented them the advantages of taking part in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) programme as well as the services we offer to the entrepreneurs.

18th Networking Meeting of Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs

The Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxembourg took part in the 18th Networking Meeting of the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs (EYE) which was held in Brussels on 20 and 21 September. This meeting seeked to put  in contact the intermediary organisations (IOs) from different European countries which participate in this programme, such us the Chamber, which is a local contact point in Belgium. IOs could catch up on the last EYE news and exchange during these two days their experiences and opinions.Print

The event was also uselful to increase the changes of partnership among the participant entities. These ones could make known both new and experienced entrepreneurs interesed in the programme, which encouraged the synergies among the different local contact points.

The Chamber is a local contact point of the Erasmus for Young Entrepeneurs in Belgium since the beginning of 2016. This programme  is financed by the European Commission and operates across 37 countries. Its objective is offer the new entrepreneurs the possibility to benefit from on-the-job training in a small or medium-sized enterprise elsewhere in the participating countries. It is really a win-win collaboration whereby both the new and the experienced entrepreneurs can also discover new European markets or business partners, different ways of doing business.

Whether you are a new entrepreneur or an experienced one (with more than three years of experience), the Chamber is glad to provide you with the information you need and it encourages you to participate in this programme. You can check more detailed information here.

Public sales of two Spanish State properties in Brussels and Liege on the 3rd and 13th of October respectively

Two properties of the Spanish State, one in Brussels and the other in Liege, are now in public sale. The first one is located in rue Léopold Courouble 25, Avenue Eugène Demolder 47 – 1030 Brussels. The real estate complex consists on three buildings with courtyard and garden located in the residential area of Schaerbeek.

The auction will take place on the 3rd of October of 2016 at 14:30PM in the Chamber I of the Maison des Notaires, which is situated in rue de la Montagne 30-34, 1000 Brussels.

For prior visists, contact with Mr. Lazega | Tel: 0476 848 898.

You can have further details about the property in this link.

The second building has 310m2 and it is located in the historical, cultural and residential heart of Liege. Concretely, the property is in Bd. de la Sauvenière, 130 – 4000 Liege.

The auction will take place the 13th of October of 2016 at 14:00PM in the offices of the Notary Mr. Caeymaex Alexandre, Place de Bronckart, 17 in 4000 Liege.

You can get futher details of the propery in this link or in the following webpages: http://v2.notmaison.be/index_search.php#/fr/Fiche/23558 ; http://www.immoweb.be/fr/annonce/bureau/a-vendre/liege/4000/id6399678