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Entrepreneurs’ success stories: faces for Mediterranean opportunities
The annual conference of our programme was held in Athens on 8 July in the frindge of the Med business Forum organized by SEV (Hellenic Federation of Enterprises) in association with BusinessMed and Business Europe. Invest in Med was supporting the organisation of over 500 individual business meetings between northern and southern Med enterprises.This annual conference offered the opportunity to circulate the work produced by the economic intelligence team associated to the programme (several studies and decision tools). It also coincided with the launch of the brochure “Entrepreneurs’ Success Stories” produced by Invest in Med in partnership with the European Investment Bank and the European Commission (DG Enterprise). Through 20 concrete testimonies, this brochure will help to convincing companies, and in particular SMEs, about all the benefits to be expected from investments or partnerships in the Mediterranean.For just over one year now, Invest in Med intends to act as a facilitator vis-à-vis SMEs that are increasingly considering the opportunities offered by the South med countries. Thus, besides the guides and studies issued to facilitate the decision making of SMEs targeting Med countries, the programme organised nearly 1,800 individual business meetings over the past year, leading to 250 recorded partnerships. Invest in Med inventoried about 800 foreign investment projects in 2008, and estimates that 600 projects will land in south Med countries in 2006, due to the unfavorable international context. The programme also trained 340 executive from business support organizations to better serve local enterprises and foreign investors.Altogether, 3,300 persons participated in our activities (60% are SMEs), and over 100 organisations have been mobilised to set up concerted strategies within the Invest in Med initiatives, for a sustainable economic development of the Med countries. We are most grateful to all of them for their commitment and various contributions.The documents produced by the economic intelligence team and the success stories are available for download on our website.REMINDER: the deadline for the next submission of initiatives is 18 November 2009, midnight.

This summer the CJD (Center for Young Leaders) France, Maroc, Tunisie and the CEII (European BIC network) are leading a survey on the best means to support entrepreneurs and innovative enterprises. The results to be published and presented will help defining new support and coaching offers.To share your ideas and participate in the definition of this offer, please answer the survey online.

The TEXTECH Med project kick off workshop has been held at the EBN (European and Business Innovation network) congress in Fez, with more than 200 Euro-Mediterranean leaders from the textile and innovation industry involved. Some important outcomes have been achieved : 120 players (enterprises, financing companies, R&D centers) have expressed their interest to join the initiative, a committee of 20 referent points is under finalization, a technical textile value chain has been mapped, a large scale industrial group provided a pre-agreement to cooperate, a partnership with the TEXnet technical textile network will enable the expansion of TEXTECH Med in other MEDA countries (Egypt, Turkey, Syria). To read the project newsletter click here.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce for France of Marseille has organised, as leader of the Tech Fruits et Légumes project, a first seminar in Parma which allowed the European Fruit and Vegetable Innovation Cluster of Avignon (PEIFL), the Agri-Food Cluster of Bizerte and the Techno-cluster of Parma (SSICA-Parma Tecninnova and University of Parma) to meet and define main common working themes. Two topics have emerged: the fruit and vegetable packaging and preservation. The participants have started to exchange on these issues and further discussion will take place during a 2nd seminar to be organised in Bizerte in November 2009.

In Cairo on June 4th – 8th, 2009, in the framework of Furnex 2009, 19 Jordanian, 7 Lebanese, 12 Syrian, and 182 Egyptian furniture related companies developed a joint marketing and business approach and met with  more than 70 French, Italian, Spanish, Greek and Cypriot business partners through the “Furnish from Mashreq” Invest in Med Initiative organized by the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI). Among the 301 companies surveyed in Furnex, provisional technical, business and strategic agreements were entered for a total value of over US$ 180 million, through BtoB meetings and visits to factories. A specific follow-up of the Furnish from Mashreq initiative is to be done in the coming months.

The project "Young entrepreneurs let's invest in Med" launched its first activities in June 2009. The initiative, led by the CJD-UTICA (Tunisia) has won young entrepreneurs’ support during a Euromed meeting in Martigues and over 50 French entrepreneurs have registered to the activities proposed. A second meeting, gathering around 150 young Moroccan, French, Belgium and Tunisian leaders, took place in Rabat from July 2 to 5, 2009. The programme included a conference on entrepreneurship, B2B meetings and « project-screening » presenting innovative projects looking for euro-maghrebian partnerships.

Marseille Innovation and the Elgazala Pole of Communication Technologies have received more than 300 people on June 11th & 12th for the 7th ICT, Telecom & Multimedia French-Maghrebi Business Meetings "e-3M Tunis'2009". This event has enabled  French, Algerian and Moroccan companies to meet 200+ Tunisian ICT actors to negotiate business partnerships thanks to BtoB meetings set up by Marseille Innovation in collaboration with KPMG Tunisia and Ubifrance. During this event, business development workshop on Information Systems, open source software, and company management have been organized.

Thanks to this B2B led by UNIDO, a hundred companies from textile and garments sector coming from Belgium, France, Italy and Tunisia have benefited from more than 170 planned individual meetings, based on their specific needs. Those companies have then managed to negotiate new cooperation or investment agreements : co-contracting, subcontracting, commercial agreements, and, notably, joint-venture projects involving investment in Tunisia and know-how transfer. 78 pre-agreements have been identified and a follow-up will be held within 3 months.

On july 8, in Athens, during the second Invest in Med Annual Conference 11 Mediterranean business supporting organisations have presented their projects and met with potential partners. Click here for more information on the projects and procedures.

Over US$ 22 billion of lines of credits, grants & technical assistance availed for southern Mediterranean enterprises as well as European and foreign enterprises who want to invest in the south were already identified in the Invest InMed Meda Finance study. The 'where and how' to use these funds will be presented during the 1st Euro-Mediterranean Conference & Exhibition for funding in Cairo on the 30th of September and 1st of October 2009. The Conference be addressed by senior representatives of the EC, EIB, bilateral aid organizations as well as World Bank, African Development Bank and Arab and Islamic Development Funds.

Along with growing global concerns about ecology, the Algerian desert appears as an inexhaustible deposit of clean energy, generating qualified employment.

The extension of the line 3, which will connect the old city of Cairo to the airport while passing under the Nile, constitutes a technical prowess. Alstom, Bouygues, Colas Rail, Eurovia, Thales and Vinci are already on-site.

New promising niche in the Mediterranean, medical tourism is expanding in Lebanon.The sector turnover should increase by 30% from here to 2011 according to IDAL'S.

Thanks to its position and its moderate costs, the port of Tangier Med becomes increasingly compelling a logistic platform.

The Chinese holding Gatoson Ltd plans to create an industrial park in the area of Hama in Syria, on a surface of 7 million square meters.

Hewlett Packard will open a global customer help centre in Tunisia in early 2010. The software specialist signed an agreement with the Tunisian government on Friday, 19 June.

The general manager of Turkish Airlines (THY), Mr. Temel Kotil, inaugurated a new line connecting Istanbul to the Swedish city of Gothenburg.The creation of new connections between Turkey and the North East of Europe is studied.

The Korean company thus broadens its geographical scope of intervention, from Middle East to Maghreb, and gets the largest plant order ever awarded to a Korean company despite world economic turmoil.

The measures include many new economic laws: tax exemption favorable to the national and foreign operators wishing to invest or reinvest in the Palestinian territories.  

According to the terms of the agreement, Google will develop an advertising platform for Egyptian products and services and, in counterpart, invest 25% into the Egyptian economy.

G.ho.st Virtual Computer, a start up employing both Israeli and Palestinian developers, is seen as a rare Palestinian-Israeli collaboration that could enhance political and economic dialogue between the two communities.

Degrémont, subsidiary of Suez Environment specialized in sewage treatment, will supply drinking water to Amman by exploiting water ressources in two sites located in the North and South of the capital.  

In rise of 58,5% compared to the same period last year, the investments in the industrial sector reached USD 71,9 million during the first four months of the year.

The Belgian group wants to give a second wind to its Moroccan strategy.The company wants to reinvest in cash the product of its local participations sale to the Morrocan Alliance.

Despite the global economic slowdown, Syria still lures a growing number of foreign visitors in 2009. 370,000 tourists have visited the country in May, against 326,000 during the same period of time last year.

The country is well ranked for its administrative quality services and commercial transactions methods.   

The consortium formed by Orange France Telecom and Tunisian Divona has won the third fixed-line and mobile phone license.

No crisis for Chinese companies in Istanbul. Several new investments are announced in the minerals, energy and the Building and public works sectors.

Meda Finance aims at conducting the first comprehensive survey for Meda countries of  available grant aid, TA and lines of credit from around 20 aid and development institutions among which the EC, EIB, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Finland, WB, IFC, UNDP, UNIDO and AFDB  as well as at least 10 examples of institutions offering novel non-banking financial instruments (Factoring, Leasing, Mortgage, ..etc); then gathering representatives from 20 donors and financial institutions with 30-40 Med Alliance members and SMEs; Hence Availing an investment support tool to Med Alliance to serve their members.The event takes place at Nile Hotel, Cairo, Egypt.

ACIM lead in 2009, with the participation of partners in France (Marseille Innovation), Germany (GTZ) and Algeria (ANDI), a mission that is part of the 'Invest in Med' to better understand the wishes and investment capacity in Algeria economic officials from the Algerian diaspora living in France. A 2-day workshop will be held in Algiers which will gather 20 heads of companies selected after investigation and the main players iof investment in Algeria (ANDI, Banks, Customs, notaries, accountants, etc ....)

The Exchange of know-how and technology between Mediterranean and EU companies of food processing and water waste treatment will take place during the CIBUS TEC international fair (October 2009). A matchmaking event will be organised in Parma (Italy) in order to increase business between SMEs of the two rims. Promofirenze together with its partners foresees the participation of companies from Italy,  Egypt (CEEBA), Syria (SEBC), Palestine (EPCC), Spain (Camara de Valencia), France (Marseille innovation) and from other interested countries.  

In a dynamic and investment- and partnership-friendly environment, Marseille Innovation, the Direction des Investissements au Maroc in collaboration with Technopolis and their Algerian and Tunisian partners (MATET and ANPT-Algérie, Pôle Elgazala and Fipa-Tunisie) are organising the Rencontres Franco-Maghrébines d’Affaires TIC, Télécom & Multimédia on October, 19 and 20 2009.

This edition will concentrate on three main issues: business opportunities (BtoB and worshops), financing and coaching of enterprises and governance of economic development in the Mediterranean, notably innovation and territorial attractiveness. On Saturday 10, the fifth edition of the Rendez-vous de la Méditerranée will relate to “What are the impacts of the global crisis in the Mediterranean, what are the answers”. Two major events will be organised in the framework of the Invest in Med programme. For more information www.semaine-eco-med.com  

The Invest in Med programme aims at developing sustainable trade relationships, investments and enterprise partnerships between the two rims of the Mediterranean. Funded at 75% by the European Union over the 2008-2011 period, it is implemented by the MedAlliance consortium, which associates economic development organisations (ANIMA, leader of the programme), CCIs (ASCAME, EUROCHAMBRES), and business federations (BUSINESSMED). The members of these networks, as well as their special partners (UNIDO, GTZ, EPA Euroméditerranée, World Bank, etc.), gather a thousand of economic actors - mobilised through pilot initiatives centered on key Mediterranean promising niches. Each year, a hundred operations associate the 27 countries of the European Union and 9 Mediterranean partner countries: Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia. www.invest-in-med.eu