LCCI chief executive Karim Fatehi OBE was a speaker at the World Chambers Congress which took place in September in Melbourne, Australia. The event united more than 1,000 business, chamber and government leaders from 100 countries and was the fourteenth congress in the series which began in Marseilles in 1999

This was the second time in eight years that Australia has hosted the congress, Sydney being the chosen location for the event in 2025 which moves from continent to continent every two years – see box on next page for the full list.

Vibrant
Melbourne, the capital of Victoria state, has an impressive record of hosting global events, often sporting ones – the 1956 Olympics and the 2006 Commonwealth Games for example. It is also home to the Australian Grand Prix – for which many ATA Carnets are issued by LCCI – and the first tennis grand slam of the year.

Moreover, the city is a leading financial centre in the Asia-Pacific region, operates the busiest seaport in Australia, boasts the world’s largest urban tram network, and is culturally vibrant with film, theatre and comedy prominent.

Partners
A great city then for a business congress, hosted by the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), with the theme Business, government, chambers: partners for prosperity.
Introduced by VCCI’s Paul Guerra and Sally Curtain (respectively outgoing and incoming chief executive), the three-day programme explored how fostering collaboration among businesses, chambers of commerce and governments can drive economic growth.

Business climate
Karim Fatehi was an invited participant in a key session navigating geopolitics and the global economy. He spoke about the general business climate and the problems of the last decade with economic recessions, the legacy of the pandemic and geopolitical shifts. Rising business costs, he said, were an unavoidable challenge for many companies, alongside energy and fuel price surges. Faced with these growing pressures, Fatehi advised, businesses should focus on strengthening their pricing, investments and operations to remain resilient and competitive.

Growth
Indeed, suggested Fatehi, stimulating and creating a pro-investment and pro-trade environment would be key in delivering sustainable growth. Overall, he said that he had described a situation of uncertainty, but also opportunity and that this made the role of chambers even more critical.

In other sessions, Catherine Stephens of Business West and a member of the advisory board of UKNATACO spoke on free trade agreements alongside Paul Wrighting from the British Chambers of Commerce and Martin van de Weide from the Netherlands Chamber. In the ATA Carnet session, outgoing WATAC chair Henk Wit moderated a panel which included Amanda Barlow, a vice president at Rock-It Cargo, and Declan Daily of USCIB.

Performance
During the event, Julian Kassam, deputy director general at ICC, launched the Chamber Benchmarking tool, created in partnership with Dubai Chambers and designed for chambers of commerce to measure, improve and showcase their performance, providing insights that drive chamber excellence, innovation and future readiness.

Recognised
Awards are a popular feature of the congress, with keen interest from chambers worldwide in getting their work recognised – and shared. Winners in Melbourne were the Ankara Chamber of Commerce (best innovation project), Business Chamber Queensland (best transition project), Cork Chamber of Commerce (best collaboration of chambers, business and government), CAINVO – Bolivia (best out-of-the-box project), and the Chamber of Commerce of Western Australia (best diversity and inclusion project).

 

Ontario 2027

Being selected to host the World Chambers Congress is a hugely prestigious achievement and involves a bidding process not unlike the Olympic Games. The 15th congress will be held in Toronto in 2027 – hosted by the Ontario Chamber of Commerce – bringing the event back to the Americas as part of the geographical cycle for the first time since 2019.

Previous WCF congresses have been hosted in:

  • Marseilles – 1999
  • Seoul – 2001
  • Quebec City – 2003
  • Durban – 2005
  • Istanbul – 2007
  • Kuala Lumpur – 2009
  • Mexico City – 2011
  • Doha – 2013
  • Torino – 2015
  • Sydney – 2017
  • Rio de Janeiro – 2019.
  • Dubai – 2021
  • Geneva – 2023.