What are Chambers of Commerce?

Italian Chambers of Commerce Industry Handicraft and Agriculture are "public bodies that perform functions of general interest for the business system, focusing on development of local economies" (definition taken from the Chamber of Commerce Reform Law 580/93).

They are all independent bodies as each Chamber of Commerce has its own Articles of Association, defines its own political programme and, in addition, is independent from a financial and management point of view.

 

The reference law

Consolidated Law no.580 of December 29, 1993 – as amended by Legislative Decree no.23 of February 15, 2010 (in pdf format 224 kB)

 

What are its key functions?

Consult the services brochure  (in pdf format 2.088 kB)

The various functions and services can be divided into 4 main categories:

• Administration services: archiving and updating of business registers, lists, bars etc where all the main information on all firms and business are registered.
• Promotional services: support to businesses and the development of the local economy.
• Monitoring, studies, and analysis of local economy data: providing all necessary information, collected from and provided to businesses, to obtain in-depth knowledge of the socio-economic situation in the area.
• Market regulatory functions: to promote and increase levels of transparency, confidence and equity of economic relations between businesses and between businesses and the general public.

All the Italian Chambers of Commerce are part of a network structure based on an extensive chamber system which, inter alia, provides real-time data generated by each individual  Chamber throughout the national territory.

 

Who we are: the Milan Chamber of Commerce

Consult the brochure  (in pdf format 5.718 kB)

The Milan Chamber of Commerce is a public body and therefore supports and promotes services of interest to the firms and enterprises located in the province of Milan.Its head office is in Milan, but it has set up a series of satellite agencies to respond to local demand and provide in-situ services to the businesses scattered throughout the entire province. More specifically, it promotes activities that focus on encouraging entrepreneurial training and tuition, facilitated credit for businesses, innovation and transfer of technologies, the diffusion of e-commerce enterprises, the protection and safeguard of the environment in relation to manufacturing activities, infrastructure development and the exploitation of the resources within the area.It also focuses on targeted activities that aim to boost the economic development of the area and the level of competitiveness of the local business system at a domestic and international level. Further functions include the administration formalities foreseen by the law (registration of companies, enterprises and professionals and other related procedures) and the promotion of fair and equitable codes of practice for all business contracts.

To conclude, the Chamber of Commerce also exercises various functions assigned by the Lombardy Regional Authorities, the Italian State Authorities and applicable International Conventions.

In order to achieve its objective of supporting the business system and local market, the Chamber of Commerce has set-up 5 special companies (companies established under private law). The Special Agencies pursue the objectives and targets established by the Chamber of Commerce policies and guidelines.