It was on February 12, 1912 at the Kyiv Commercial College that the south-west branch of the Russian Export Chamber had its Constituent Assembly to establish an institution which spread its activities over then Kyiv, Podillya and Volyn provinces. It was a starting-point of the chamber movement in Ukraine in the 20th century.
Speaking at the Assembly meeting Dr. Mitrofan Dovnar-Zapolski, the first chairman of the board, said:
- International relations are based to a great extent now on trade relations. On the other hand the competition in trade in the world market has driven us to such limits and worked out such forms that an individual enterprise however strong it may be cannot act alone in the world market... Hence there is a need in institutions that could unite the persons concerned in a joint effort. And these institutions are trade and export chambers. They are to gain voice and weight in working out various issues currently facing the state and measures of the state pertaining to industry and commerce.
Noteworthy that after the period of social turmoil and civil war of 1917 to 1921 one of the first organizations to be re-established by Soviet Government was the Export Chamber as a non-government independent body.
A branch of the Russian-Eastern chamber began functioning in Kharkiv (Ukraine) in 1924. A year later a Ukrainian-Eastern Chamber of Commerce replaced it on the initiative of Ukraine’s government.
Changes in Soviet policy and economy to a certain extent affected the chambers which remained formally independent. The chamber movement expanded covering all regions of Ukraine with its branches, and subsidiaries.
The Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry was established in 1972 on the basis of a branch of the USSR Chamber of Commerce whereas as the chamber of an independent state it began actively operating since 1992. On December 2, 1997 a Law On the Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Ukraine was adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament (Verhovna Rada).
The Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry according to the law is a non-government non-profit self-governing organisation incorporating on a voluntary basis legal entities and Ukrainian citizens registered as entrepreneurs as well as their associations.
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