Mario Boffo, Italian coordinator of the Union for the Mediterranean and General Director for Institutional Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced the birth of the Mediterranean Partnership Fund, a fund specifically designed to operate in support of businesses based in the Mediterranean area.
At the same event (Euro-mediterranean workshop organized on the 14th of december by Promos-Chamber of Commerce Milan) were also signed the first three Memorandum of Understanding for the Euro-Med Center (directed to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) which will be based in Milan and will be structured according to a network model to be more effective throughout the area.
The three countries that have signed the agreement are Albania, Lebanon and Morocco. In particolar, Khater Abi Habib, chairman and CEO of Kafalat, an organization that supports and provides funding to small and medium enterprises and also to innovative startups signed for Lebanon. In signing the agreement Habib stressed the importance of coordination between different institutions – widely represented at the workshop – that in the various countries support micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, as well as the growing number of innovative startups.
The importance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises is essential, we know that the economy is made in Italy for over 90% of these realities and the scenario is very similar in other countries (such as Turkey where the percentage rises to 99%). Besides, in the countries of the Mediterranean, 80% of new jobs were created in the last 5 years and generated by its own small and medium-sized compagnie, as pointed out Giancarlo Lanna, President of Simest. “Such is the importance of these subjects, AICE President Claudio Rotti added, that we should think about the creation of a Euro-Mediterranean free trade area to be activated as soon as possible”. All this, without forgetting the cultural and educational aspects, that are vital for the economic and industrial renew, as pointed out by Nayef Z. Stetieh, President and CEO of the Jordanian Business Development Center.
“Where there is economic development, social environment is more satisfied and therefore growth and stability,” said Bruno Ermolli, President of Promos Chamber of Commerce of Milan who also focused on the importance of collecting and process information and data in order to facilitate the right decisions – Euro-Mediterranean Centre for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises will go in this direction addressing more than 14 million of reality in the whole area of which 4.4 million are the Italian SME that need to internationalize. Today there are about 200 thousand micro, small and medium-sized Italian companies operating abroad the target i sto be at least 500 thousand.” Ermolli signed on behalf of the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for micro, small and medium-sized companies the Memorandum of Understanding with Albania, Morocco and Lebanon, emphasizing that this list of countries will grow very soon.
Emil Abirascid
(article available also in Italian at Intesa Sanpaolo Eurodesk)
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