World Chambers Network and OpenEntry announce partnership for global e-commerce

The initiative combines the trust generated by the WCN’s “ChamberTrust” seal with OpenEntry’s award-winning technology providing free e-commerce catalogs as well as network markets specially designed for chambers in every country. Businesses interested in international trade and more specifically those holding the ChamberTrust seal participating in these OpenEntry national network markets are then aggregated into a global network market enjoying the high visibility of the WCN.

Given the current worldwide economic crisis, international trade is more important than ever.  The biggest challenges to global e-commerce are a) managing the technical intricacies of web catalogs and b) establishing visibility, credibility, and trust. OpenEntry resolves the first challenge by enabling any enterprise anywhere to create and maintain their own free e-commerce catalog on Google tools and servers. It also makes it easy for business networks (chambers of commerce, trade promotion organizations, and industry associations) to aggregate their members’ catalogs (even those not created with OpenEntry) into network markets containing thousands of products and services that are searchable by country, product, key word, price and other fields.

An example OpenEntry network markets is as follows:

• World Fair Trade Organization
The second challenge of trust is squarely addressed by the WCN, the most trusted worldwide network.  It enables member chambers in any country to issue ChamberTrust seals to their members certifying that they are members of this prestigious world network.  Those businesses certified by their national chambers with the ChamberTrust seal are automatically enrolled in the global WCN network market.  This marketplace confers the high profile of the WCN with its unparalleled trust upon the participating businesses.

World Chambers Network (WCN) mobilizes the worldwide network of chambers of commerce to work together at one Internet portal.  WCN is the only website designed by chambers of commerce, for chambers of commerce worldwide.   WCN provides a platform for our global chamber network, fostering a comprehensive exchange of business information between chambers and their member companies on all continents. Over 14,000 chambers are listed in the WCN Chamber of Commerce Directory.   WCN enables chambers throughout the world to develop their traditional mission of providing business support. That means providing solid market intelligence, opening up contacts to new customers and suppliers and developing business opportunities.

OpenEntry was launched in 1990 and has been implemented in 44 countries.  It won the Global IT Excellence Award for Digital Opportunity by the World Information Technology and Services Alliance and also established alliances with a wide range of public and private institutions including, IBM, eBay and UNESCO.  A United Nations Development Program evaluation in Nepal, concluded:

• “The largest impact of implementing this ‘pro-poor’ e-commerce approach was on income and employment. Firms using it reported jobs that were directly attributable to the on-line promotion . . . 3918 women”
• “a relatively inexperienced group of young IT professionals could, with the proper tools, create employment for themselves while providing e-commerce services to local SMMEs.”

For further information, contact:
Georges Fischer, President of the World Chambers Network

E-mail: Fischerg@ccip.fr
Tel: +3315.565.3355