From the desk of the General Manager
Elisabeth Kerdelhué

Are we all neo-Keynesians now? While more and more companies are engaged in cost-cutting and downsizing in a bid to survive the global downturn, the Australian government is trying to boost business confidence with a range of stimulus packages.  

Unfortunately the Chamber is not immune to the pain of the shrinking economy. Although the size and nature of our organisation does not call for the radical or dramatic changes that many small businesses and large corporations have had to make, the fact that we rely on the discretionary dollar means that we are learning how to do more with less. Our hard working and committed team understands the challenges of today’s business environment and the falling revenue of a small organisation such as ours is of serious concern.  However while we have had to reassess some of our priorities, we remain strongly committed to our members and will continue to develop initiatives that will be beneficial to them.

In particular, we are creating more opportunities for members to engage with each other via a range of business and social events. Indeed this year we are planning to host more business briefings and seminars with the support of our patron members. These are aimed at creating closer relationships with members, potential members and key stakeholders and to promote the vision, goals and objectives of FACCI. We also welcome ideas from our members which may help us to better weather the crisis.

Our next business briefing will be held on 12 May with Jean-Louis Latour, Senior French Trade Commissioner as our keynote speaker. He will give an update on bilateral trade and talk about how the global financial crisis is affecting French exports. This briefing will also provide an opportunity for a few member companies including SNF, Thales Air Services and Dassault Systèmes, to present their activities, showcase significant achievements, and also discuss their current and future projects in Australia. I strongly encourage you to come along, and should your company be interested in providing a guest speaker for the next business briefing or seminar, please let us know.

As always, our team is very keen to hear your thoughts, so please drop us a line or come and see us at 155 Queen Street.

Bien cordialement,

Elisabeth Kerdelhué
General Manager