Chamber of Commerce set to encompass Somerset region

Businesses to band together with Somerset Chamber of Commerce and Industry

SPEAKING UP: Bronwyn Davies is eager to bring a chamber of commerce and industry to all of Somerset. Picture: Contributed

BUSINESS is changing in the Somerset with the executive committee in a small chamber of commerce looking to expand its scope.

Kilcoy Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Bronwyn Davies said it was important to think about the future and having a regional chamber would give businesses a bigger voice.

"Kilcoy has a real place to be a forefront leader in bringing the rest of Somerset along into more of a business footprint and voice,” Ms Davies said.

"Our business issues are the same and we need to have a voice if we want change for our region. ”

A year into her term as president, she said she had noticed things were 'surviving and not thriving' in the Somerset region.

"I would like to get to being a Somerset Chamber of Commerce,” she said.

"You've got a Lockyer Valley Chamber of Commerce and a Toowoomba one.”

Ms Davies said the idea behind the chamber was to give businesses a voice, which could help when liaising with council.

"It's important businesses in smaller towns have a voice,” she said.

"If they have issues or need some support, I think the Chamber is the perfect platform for expressing those views.”

She said Chamber would also encourage businesses to come to the region.

"We need to encourage business to come to the region because we're going to have the people here,” she said.

"We need a voice, a bigger voice, and the Chamber can provide that voice.”

She said the process of growing to encompass the entire region was taking 'leg-work' and 'getting the word out there'.

"There are a few of us and we have a plan,” she said

"If businesses want to improve their position, develop their own economies, they need to support each other and promote each other,” she said.

She said the expansion would allow the Somerset 'knowledge bank' to support local businesses across the region.

"I want to collect the knowledge bank of all the information we have from the farming business right down to the home-based business,” she said.

"We have a huge voice here in Somerset and we're not using it.”

The KCCI presently has 26 members.

"Considering there is something like 5000 businesses in the region, imagine what that voice would be like,” she said.

The KCCI AGM is scheduled for August 22 at 6pm at the Kilcoy Info Centre.