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The
National Chamber of Electrical Engineering in
Bulgaria(NCEEB) is a nation-wide
representative of the main part of the Bulgarian electrical
engineering industry and was founded in 1994 as an officially
registered national non-profit organization with members – state
enterprises. Only just after the privatization of the industry, the
Chamber started gradually to function and the number of its members
from around 30 in 1999 increased to more than 150 companies from the
electrical branch with manufacturing, engineering, commercial,
consultant and R&D activities. They join the Chamber on a voluntary
basis, incl. all leading foreign branch investors as FESTO, ABB,
SCHNEIDER, HYUNDAI, SPARKY, BOSCH etc. with a staff total of about
13 000 employees in the following sectors:
- HV/MV-electric power equipment,
switchgear
- LV-switchgear, electric
utilities, lighting fixtures, luminaries
- Cables and wires
- Electric motors, hand tools,
hoisting & haulage and transport technique
- Batteries
- Automation, control &
measurement appliances
- Subcontractors of elements,
parts, materials
- Electric thermal equipment
- Engineering, complete projects,
consultancy
- Trade companies.
For its entire service work,
NCEEB
has been selected and awarded as one of the best and most successful
chambers and associations in Bulgaria for 2002/2003 by GTZ – the
German Society for Technical Co-operation at the Federal Ministry
for Economic Development and Collaboration (BMZ).
In its capacity as the national
representative of the electrical engineering companies in Bulgaria,
the Chamber has the following priority objectives:
- To assist its members in their
efforts for integration with the European electrical engineering
and in strengthening of their position on international markets,
to assist them in their attempts to improve their competition
capabilities and technological level with the aim – to fill market
niches with new products.
- To promote attracting foreign
investments, to help establishing joint ventures and manufactures
as well as other forms of transborder economic co-operation.
- To accelerate the harmonization
process of the technical legislation with the European one and the
establishment in this country of a stable system of product
certification. NCEEB organizes regular training courses and issues
information and reference materials for the management staff on
the aspects of the New Approach in the technical legislation.
- To enhance the stabilization
process of the local market, not tolerating improper products,
unlawful import and phantom-companies.
- To assist any form of job skill
enhancement in order to achieve better professionalism and
competence of the managerial staff, to help establishing loyal and
ethical relations within the branch.
To achieve its goals, NCEEB:
Establishes useful collaboration
and contacts with European, national and international branch
associations and companies and supports development of commercial
and technological links between branch partners. Close relations
have already been established with the most authoritative German
organizations as VDE, VDI, ZVEI, ZVEH, well-known to international
circles. Aiming elaboration of new market perspectives for its
members, NCEEB has concluded agreements with the Italian National
Association of Electrical Industry, the Italian Commercial Chamber
in Bulgaria, the Serbian Chamber of Commerce, AENOR (Spain), the
Trade and Industrial Chamber of China, the Czech and Moravian
Electric & Electronic Association. Good contacts are maintained with
the respective chambers in the Balkan region. NCEEB is an active
member of the authoritative international organization INTERELECTRO
with headquarters in Moscow.
- Organizes business visits of
foreign experts and investors to this country and of Bulgarian
specialists abroad, organizes national and international meetings,
workshops, conferences, training and professional courses. In this
respect, NCEEB is very active in organizing regularly
presentations of foreign companies, entering the Bulgarian market.
With the financial aid of a leading local PCB-manufacturing
company, NCEEB is organizing with German assistance a broad-scaled
vocational training center for specialists in the field of
electrical installation systems and building automation.
- Takes part in consulting
councils, committees and working groups with the state and public
authorities and introduces to the state authorities proposals of
new and amended legislative acts in the domain of control of the
economy.In this capacity, NCEEB acts as an important link between
the Authorities and the private business sector. With the
assistance of GTZ, NCEEB has elaborated in the last year the Branch
Development Strategy of the Bulgarian Electrical Engineering, and
also, the recently put forward to the Parliament draft of the Law
for the Branch Organizations.
- Prepares annual analysises of
the state and the tendencies in the branch, publishes informative
and advertising materials on technological, manufacturing
opportunities and human resources of the companies. NCEEB keeps
the Bulgarian electrical engineering society au courant on
important branch issues, trends, tenders etc. and publishes two
electronic bulletins weekly, respectively maintains a currently
updated web-site.
- Takes part in several projects
for establishment of independent testing laboratories for product
certification, incl. in collaboration with VDE and assists the
public and state authorities in implementing the European
technical legislation.
- Organizes participation of
companies and maintains own stands at international fairs and
exhibitions, incl. HANNOVER MESSE, LIGHT & BUILDING (Frankfurt),
INTEL (Milan) and at national exhibitions and fairs, as ELTECH
(Sofia), PLOVDIV FAIR etc.
The Chamber maintains a staff of
six experts full time and almost 20 specialists part time. We also
count on volunteers. The budget of the Chamber is formed in the last
two years about 50% from membership fees and 50% from own
activities. For the latter, the Chamber offers a Catalogue of
Services.
As adequate expertise and financial
resources have been accumulated in the Chamber and since it enjoys
considerable public respect and confidence, additional structures
within the Chamber as the Automotive Parts Manufactures Association,
the Cable Association and the Building Automation Association have
been initiated recently.
NCEEB is managed by an elected
Board of Managers and a President-elect and calls an annual general
meeting which endorses the budget and amendments to the Statutes and
authorizes the mandate of the Board of Managers.
NCEEB is an active partner of the
Ministry of Economy, the Executive Agency for the Promotion of Small
and Medium Enterprises, the State Agency for Metrology and Technical
Surveillance, the Executive Agency “Bulgarian Accreditation
Service”, the Bulgarian Investment Agency, the Bulgarian Industrial
Association, the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and many
other national institutions.
In the end, it could be summarized
that NCEEB acts as a service structure to the branch and continuously
expands its activity in that direction. |
