The Eastern Swedish Chamber of Commerce is the region’s largest business network with approximately 850 member companies that have an estimated 50,000 employees.
We have offices in Norrköping and Linköping, but our meetings take place everywhere in the region, which includes Östergötland, Sörmland and Gotland.
We contribute with expert knowledge, qualified consulting services and training that develop your business.
We provide you with new contacts, networks and inspiring meeting places so that you can develop your business, your organization and your leadership. We drive the economic policy issues that create better conditions for regional attractiveness, entrepreneurship and positive social development. We are politically unbound, work for increased growth and contribute to our members’ businesses – locally, regionally and globally.
Organization and group
Through the Chamber of Commerce, the East Swedish companies make their voices heard by politicians and decision-makers. Our services and experience contribute to creating better opportunities for our members to develop their businesses – locally, regionally and internationally.
The Eastern Swedish Chamber of Commerce has offices in Linköping and Norrköping and representation in Visby. The Chamber of Commerce has a wholly owned subsidiary.
Eastern Swedish Chamber of Commerce Service AB
The Chamber of Commerce’s for-profit subsidiary. The company’s board is identical to the association’s board in working committees. (Chairman, representative Gotland, representative Sörmland, representative Östergötland, CEO). Two-thirds of the Chamber of Commerce’s employees are employed by the service company.
Rich history
The history of the Chamber of Commerce begins in 1599 in Marseille. An organization was then formed to protect French trade from pirates in the Mediterranean. 100 years later, the Chamber of Commerce was well established in large parts of Europe.
In the middle of the 19th century, a discussion began in Sweden that continued for 50 years. Would we do like Germany, France, Italy and Spain who had compulsory membership for their companies, or like the UK and Portugal, where membership was voluntary?
In 1902 the discussion was over and the first Swedish Chamber of Commerce started in Stockholm. The model was the county council’s democratic organization with a council that appoints a board, and the companies’ membership would be voluntary. The main task was to create good conditions for business life in the own region and to promote trade across borders. During the next ten years – in step with the expansion of the railway – the phenomenon spread across the country.
The Eastern Swedish Chamber of Commerce was founded in 1913 and is owned and operated by companies with employees in Östergötland, Sörmland and on Gotland
