About the Association of German Chambers of Industry and
Commerce (DIHK)
The Giessen-Friedberg Chamber of Industry and Commerce is
organized under the umbrella of the Association of German Chambers
of Industry and Commerce (DIHK). The DIHK represents the interests
of trade and industry at the national level vis-à-vis the German
government and Parliament, the EU and international
organisations.
The DIHK is a registered association whose General Meeting is
formed from representatives of the 80 chambers. Its Executive
Committee reflects the economic structure of the various industries
in the regions of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its President is
elected by the General Meeting. The DIHK’s central office is in
Berlin and it also maintains an office in Brussels, staffed
by a highly qualified team.
The network of German chambers of industry and commerce
abroad, supported by the DIHK, is made up of three different
institutions:
• Chambers of industry and commerce abroad
• German business delegates’ offices
• Representative offices of German industry in more
than 80 countries worldwide.
The DIHK abroad
The central responsibility of the network of German Chambers of
Industry and Commerce abroad is to promote bilateral economic ties.
The delegations abroad may become extraordinary members of the DIHK
and are represented on its Board by one of their Presidents.
The chambers of industry and commerce abroad, with their approx.
40,000 members today (companies in the host country and in
Germany), are to be found principally in countries with good market
structures and sufficient entrepreneurs with the financial capacity
to support them. Delegates’ offices and representative offices of
German trade and industry are located in countries where market
structures are not so well established, which are only now
beginning to establish bilateral trade ties with Germany (some
former Soviet states, the People’s Republic of China, states in
Africa, etc.), countries where it is not possible to establish a
chamber of industry?and commerce abroad according to German
standards of independence, or in cases where the office is engaged
in paving the way for a chamber at a later date. All these types of
representation offer the same quality of service to both
chamber?members and non-members. The German chamber network abroad
currently employs 1,600 people who produce a budgetary volume of
120 million Euro.
This makes the network of German chambers of industry and
commerce abroad an important element of the business community’s
self-administration. Where they can, and with the help of the
chambers’ organisations, companies themselves attend to matters of
foreign business which by contrast in most other countries of the
world are dealt with by state-run institutions such as embassies or
state export promotion agencies. In the international context, the
network of German chambers of industry and commerce abroad may
therefore be seen as part of a coordinated German strategy for the
promotion of international trade. Chambers of industry and commerce
in Germany and abroad work closely together on issues of foreign
trade within this service network.
The DIHK in the Eurochambres
Their mutual assistance is particularly intensive within the
European Union, and sometimes also with associated or applicant
countries. The chamber organisations of these countries are united
in a European Union Association of Chambers of Industry and
Commerce, known as Eurochambres, in which the DIHK plays a major
role. These numerous international contacts maintained and analysed
by the DIHK benefit all chambers.
