CAME’s Commercial sector believes retail trade is the heart of all cities and the main component for the growth of regional economies. In order to consolidate and increase the competitiveness of regional economies, we work with entities, state authorities, and SME businesspeople from all over the country. To achieve this, since 2000 we have been implementing the Program for the Strengthening of Retail Trade (Programa de Fortalecimiento del Comercio Minorista) that led to the development of more than 100 projects for Open-air Shopping Malls (Centros Comerciales Abiertos, CCA). For each CCA project, CAME’s Commercial sector provides technical assistance and training taught by multidisciplinary teams, and facilitates the collaboration between the public and private sectors of each city, province, or region.
These undertakings focus on the productive synergy between the city, the Commercial, and the Tourism Sectors, and not only improve the performance of commercial and service SMEs, but also generate benefits related to the prosperity and the sustainable development of the communities to which they belong. Open-air Shopping Malls support a better performance of domestic commerce instead of other formats such as closed shopping malls and superstores. At the same time, they attract more residents, visitors, and tourists to the city. We organize training programs and workshops at a local, regional, and national level in order to promote modernization and continuous upgrading of the retail market due to its constant changing needs, technological innovations, and new business trends. In our seminars, we invite specialists from other countries to share their knowledge and experiences regarding CCA and other domestic operations that add value to retail trade. These meetings are attended by different SME leaders, salesmen, entrepreneurs, and businesspeople from all across the country.
Illegal sales
Growing illegal sales in shopping centers all over the country are detrimental to our activity in every possible way, from commercial performance to the value of real estate. This is why CAME is committed to ban illegal sales and defend legal commercial practices and public areas.
Through different initiatives carried out in many cities all across the country, CAME paves the way combating illegal businesses, as well as striking up legal action. CAME works together with local, regional, and provincial entities that need its support.
The CAME Commission Against Illegal Sales (comisión CAME contra la Ilegalidad), created in February 2019, interacts with leaders, public workers, and competent authorities from Argentina to create, together, specific tools to fight against illegal and informal sales.
Some of the related services to the daily management of retail trade are: AFIP presentations, credit card income management and the update of tax rules, among others.
Visit to Open-air Shopping Malls in Spain
Every year, a delegation coordinated by the Argentine Federation of Open-air Shopping Malls (Federación de Centros Comerciales Abiertos, FCCA) and CAME, consisting of businesspeople, enterprise leaders, and public workers, travel to Spain to learn first-hand the experience of managing shopping malls in that country. By doing this, we generate direct ties with European experts and important personalities on the matter.
Commercial Sector Goals
- To promote official regulations and rules to stimulate commercial performance in retail stores, in a legal framework that takes into account the sector’s daily needs.
- To create solutions for the problems that affect commercial SMEs, making their voices heard to local, regional, and national authorities. CAME does this by walking every step of the way with the entities it represents.
- To contribute to the economic modernization and sustainability of retail trade, service SMEs and commercial SMEs from all across the country.
- To increase job offerings in the Commercial and Service sectors.
- To strengthen the competitiveness of the retail sector providing training and education related to innovation, digital transformation, and new methods of strategic management.
- To consolidate the development of CCAs all across the country, both in big cities and small towns.
- To facilitate the relationship and the collaboration between the public and private sectors to develop urban shopping malls.
- To raise awareness regarding the importance of urban shopping malls and historic centers of cities.
- To recognize the worth of traditional centers of cities through urban improvement and integrated commercial activities related to culture, tourism, and leisure.