Spanish Chamber Newsletter 2020

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Dear Subscriber,

2020 has been a particularly difficult year for many of us, and it is now ending with a 2nd Covid wave, preventing businesses and communities from operating in a normal way during these unprecedented times. 

So as we continue to confront the COVID-19 pandemic together and manage the impact it has had on our day-to-day lives, I take this opportunity on reflecting on what truly matters most.

The answer to that question can be so many things, especially in times such as these. But what matters now, as I think about our region in the global community, is support, camaraderie, and vision, amongst families, friends, colleagues, and communities. These aspects of our shared experience are key to weathering any crisis.

However, we continue working to create opportunities for you, that are perhaps more important now than ever before.

And finally, what matters most is that we have a shared vision for our future beyond the pandemic. As of today, the future remains unsettling, irritating, and unknown as to when this will all end. But it will end and we will prevail.

Stay safe, connected, and healthy.

SEGUIMOS !!!

SEGUIMOS con toda la energía que nuestros antepasados nos transmitieron.

Muchas gracias a todos por ser parte de esta familia ¡!!

Thank you all for being part of this family ¡! 

Jose Maria Segurola
President
The Spanish Chamber of Commerce RSA.
MEMBERS NEWS
One of the SCC's objectives is to find better ways to assist our members, and to get the most out of their membership experience.

That is why we have started using “Glue Up” as our new communication and activity management platform. 

In order for you to benefit from this new platform, please activate your Glue Up account.

With this new system, you will be able to quickly manage your email subscriptions, event registrations and membership information, all in one place!

Please follow these links to activate your account:

 

 
New Membership Benefit
 
Blinkist Promotion
Blinkist Promotion
The current lockdown is hitting all parts of society extremely hard.
The “new normal” that has so suddenly become part of our lives has forced us to work from home and to conduct most of our business activities remotely. Yet the world still moves on. Innovators continue to innovate and companies in each industry sector are looking for that extra competitive edge to gain more market share. It is therefore even more important to have mechanisms in place to allow you to keep fully up-to-date with the latest trends and strategies which could directly impact the success of your business.

With this in mind the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in South Africa is always on the lookout for innovate ways to assist the growth and sustainability of your business.

We have recently discovered the Blinkist Knowledge Service that will go a long way to addressing these challenges.

Blinkist delivers high quality summaries of the latest expert writing on a vast range of topics covering everything from Leadership and Entrepreneurship to Finance and Technology, plus many other topics including vital soft skills practices. Blinkist is accessed via various mobile devices or via your laptop on a 24 x 7 basis.

In just fifteen minutes you can digest this knowledge either by reading the summaries which most closely match your own personal interests and competencies. Alternatively, you can listen to an audio equivalent. Learning and sharing remotely was never easier.

Also, by giving access to this service to key members of your staff, this can then be an important platform for knowledge collaboration and can contribute to your making informed strategic decisions for your business and leadership effectiveness, even in these challenging times.

Now that Blinkist has become a Member of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in South Africa, you as a member can take advantage of generous discounts that will apply to any order that you place for this service.

For more details please pop the SCC an email or you can contact Blinkist’s Regional Manager, Anton Coy directly on 067 738 4843 or at coyco@intekom.co.za.
Blinkist Knowledge Services
Welcome To Our New Members
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Welcome to Air France / KLM 

Air France-KLM Group is a global giant in its main areas of businesses: passenger transport, cargo transport and aeronautical maintenance. Air France-KLM is the leading Group in terms of international traffic on departure from Europe. It offers its customers access to a network covering over 250 destinations thanks to Air France, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Transavia. With a fleet of 554 aircraft and 104 million passengers carried in 2019, Air France-KLM operates up to 2,300 daily flights, mainly from its hubs at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol.

Its Flying Blue loyalty program is one of the leaders in Europe with over 15 million members. Air France and KLM are also members of the SkyTeam alliance which has 19 member airlines, offering customers access to a global network of over 14,500 daily flights to more than 1,150 destinations in more than 175 countries.

For more information:
 
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Welcome to Pace Project Management 

Pace Project Management is a division of Pace Property Group. The Group is a fully fledged property services company that has been offering industrial, commercial and retail property services since 1976.

Pace Project Management is a specialist infrastructure advisory, project planning and project execution company focusing on the Southern African construction and engineering sectors. It ensures that the planning and execution of projects is done to the highest project management standards . The company advises and assists its clients to plan and deliver energy, water and transport infrastructure projects. Its project are planned and executed with the main goals of ensuring that they are completed on time, within budget, at the highest quality standards and within acceptable safety standards.

website: http://www.pace.co.za/ email: info@pace.co.za  
 
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Welcome to Tradebrics

Tradebrics connects buyers and businesses across Africa and developed nations to trade and procure better.

It is Africa’s largest BIG DATA trade hub that lists millions of products and services from tens of thousands of businesses.
 
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Welcome to Gransolar Group

Gransolar Group is a group of companies, with a strong technological base, a solid manufacturing capacity, and the competences required to provide turnkey energy solutions in a constantly changing environment. After 15 years of experience around the world, it has managed to differentiate itself by its high technical and execution capacity and its great agility and adaptability. 
 
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Welcome to Wild Spirit

Wild Spirit Fund is an NGO, born in Africa and run by an international network of wildlife professionals and veterinarians. We strive for the health of ecosystems, the protection of biodiversity and the future of our planet. Nature is what connects us all and is key to ensure the continuity of all species, including humans. 

Wild Spirit was our first project, whom for over a decade has been training international veterinarians in the field of wildlife conservation in South Africa.
 
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Welcome to Inventta

Inventta Limited is a well established trading company with vast experience in supplying equipment to Power Utilities in the African Continent. Incorporated in Hong Kong in 2004 and with offices in Shanghai, Singapore and Johannesburg the company has a strong procurement network in Asia and a wide sales network in Africa which puts us in a unique position to satisfy our clients needs.
 
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Welcome to Future Africa 

Future Africa.earth (FAE) is a Conglomerate of nine operating companies. It has been formed by a group of like minded professionals with proven track records in their chosen disciplines. The purpose of Future Africa.earth is to offer a single, holistic solution to many of the challenges we face Globally, and specifically within Africa.
The different sectors are :
  • Agriculture
  • Infrastructure
  • Distribution
  • Electrical & Mechanical solutions
  • Conservation
  • Micro Businesses
  • Green Economy / Energy
  • Education
  • Solutions

We are not Consultants, we are Delivery Partners who can take a concept / business or a project from initial conception through all stages required to deliver a business / product ready for market in a holistic and integrated manner. 
 
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Welcome to Mazars 

Mazars is a leading international audit, tax and advisory firm. Operating as a united partnership, we work as one integrated team, leveraging expertise, scale and cultural understanding to deliver exceptional and tailored services in audit and accounting, as well as tax, financial advisory, consulting and legal services. From these modest beginnings, Mazars has grown into an international group comprising over 40,000 professionals across more than 90 countries and territories. In South Africa, Mazars is a top-six audit, tax and advisory firm by audit fee income, and one of Africa’s largest audit firms. We work with a wide range of clients – from private clients and local businesses to large corporate companies and global organisations.
 
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Welcome to Embassy Direct 

Embassy Direct strives to build a bridge between providers of quality services and the expatriate community, based on the African continent. Whilst building these connections, our underlying theme is sharing good news stories from across the African continent. We believe that Africa is not only the future, but the now’. Ron Mackenzie, Embassy Direct Founder. At the heart of our company is a private, business networking group and a high end, quality publication. Outside of hotels and lodges, memberships are restricted to one member, per industry. We have a diverse range of members, representing a wide variety of excellent brands, services, industries and products.
 
EVENTS
The year 2020 has been highly disruptive - defined by the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruptions and lockdowns. Consequently leading to mass cancellations and postponements of events. 

However, when we in South Africa reached level 1 lockdown regulations, we were given the opportunity of hosting two important events - the European Golf Day and the SCC Annual Gala Dinner. Hereunder are some of the highlights of these two events. 
 
2020 Inter-European Chamber Golf Day
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The Spanish Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with the following five Chambers:
  • Belgian Chamber of Commerce for Southern Africa (BCCSA), the 
  • French South African Chamber of Commerce (FSACCI), 
  • the Italian Chamber of Commerce (Italcham),  
  • Nordic South African Business Association (NSBA) and the 
  • Southern African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AHK) 
Teamed up to organise the 1st edition of the European Golf Day in Johannesburg.

The event took place on Wednesday the 4th November, at the beautiful Bryanston Country Club, north of Johannesburg. 

By gathering these 6 Business Chambers, this event brought together a host of Executives, CEOs and Directors from various sectors and industries. This event offered an exclusive platform to the participants to network with various stakeholders from the various chambers, business organisations, investment associations, local government representatives, including Embassies and the EU delegation.

We congratulate all the winners and take this opportunity of thanking Columbus Stainless Steel and Future Africa Earth for their sponsorship and support, at this prestigious event. 
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Left to Right: [ Mr. Roberto Cecutti, Head of the Trade and Economic Section, Delegation of the European Union (EU) to South Africa; Mr. Yunus Hoosen, Head of Invest SA (Division of DTIC); Mr. Koen Rombouts, Representative and Board Member of the European Union Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Southern Africa ]. 
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The Spanish Chamber would like to dedicate this successful event to Ms Heidel Bekker from the German Chamber of Commerce, whom we lost a couple weeks after the European Golf Day event.

The unexpected and sad loss of Heidel is felt by all of us from the European Chambers.
Heidel will forever be in our hearts and memories.

 
 
SCC 2020 Gala Dinner
On the 4th of December 2020, the Spanish Chamber hosted the 2020 SCC Year End Gala Dinner at the Bryanston Country Club. We take this opportunity of thanking all the SCC Members and Friends who attended this prestigious event and who have supported the Chamber during 2020.

A special word of thanks to all the sponsors, the Embassy of Spain in South Africa, Nedbank, Air France/ KLM, Columbus Stainless Steel, CaixaBank and Mazars, who contributed to the success of this year's Gala Dinner.

This year's winner of the Golden Lion Award went to LaLiga South Africa. Mr Jose Maria Segurola, President of the SCC and Ms Tshepo Ncube SCC Board member handed the Golden Lion Award trophy to Mr Marcos Pelegrin, Managing Director of LaLiga in SA. This award recognizes the successful and sustainable integration between a South African and Spanish Company. 

The recipient of the first Golden Lion Life Time Achievement Award was Mr Antonio Barradas,. This award acknowledges his contribution to the Spanish Chamber of Commerce RSA and his overall contribution to Sports and Football Development in South Africa. 

In addition, two amazing prizes was given during the Gala Dinner, the first one was an ESG Awareness Assessment from Mazars. This assessment assists organisations to analyze their current status and further assess the risk and opportunities available to them. The winner was Mr Gabriel Pauna from Essar Designs.

The second prize was 2 airline tickets to Spain/Europe sponsored by Air France/KLM. The winner was Mr Jorge Rodriguez from Torrecid.  

Congratulations and well done to the winners! 
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Mr Sanjay Ranchhoojee, Head: Audit Partner at Mazars handing over the Mazars Prize to Mr Gabriel Pauna.
Mr Antonio Barradas
Golden Lion Life Time Achievement Award Winner. 
Ms Thi-Phi Yen Le, Commercial Director at Air France/KLM handing over the airline ticket to Mr Jorge Rodriguez.
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Mr Jose Maria Segurola, President of the SCC and Ms Tshepo Ncube SCC Board member handing the Golden Lion Award trophy to Mr Marcos Pelegrin MD of 
LaLiga in SA.
Farewell to our SCC Graduate Intern - Jaime Ruiz
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The SCC Board and Team bids farewell to our Graduate Intern Jaime Ruiz.

We thank Jaime for his overall contribution to the SCC RSA during his tenure at the SCC. Jaime had previously served as an intern at the East Midlands Chamber of Commerce in the UK and his experience in the UK contributed to the SCC RSA brand.

Jaime will continue with his internship in São Paulo, Brazil. We wish Jaime all the best with his future endeavours! The SCC will certainly miss Jaime's support and collaboration!
BECOME A MEMBER
BECOME A MEMBER OF THE SPANISH CHAMBER
 
Membership Benefits
2021 SCC Membership Benefits
TradeBrics Supplier Database and Procurement Services
has partnered with the SCC to provide the chamber's valued White, Blue, Red and Platinum members with a Supplier Database and Procurement System. This system is a fully researched supplier permission based information database with:
  • 60 000 South African Companies
  • 16 000 Companies listed as Black Owned (to some degree)
  • 25 500 Companies Identified by their B-BBEE Levels
  • 200 000 Contact Names
  • 350 000 Products, Brands & Services
  • Company Profiles
  • Easily calculate your annual B-BBEE spend from your systems
  • Import and Export Information
  • Thousands of B-BBEE, Tax Clearance Certificates & COIDA Letters of Good Standing
SCC members are invited to contact the SCC to see how this database can assist with their procurement process.

If you want to find out more about the SCC membership benefits, send an email to info@spaincc.org or visit our website. 
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