Med Project - Preliminary Remarks

In the last ten years, the Mediterranean Area - together with Central and Eastern Europe - has represented an area of great potential in terms of economic growth and Foreign Direct Investments.
In this context, also Italian companies have increased their business links with companies of the Mediterranean basin.

As a matter of fact, there is an ongoing process of significant growth of these economies, as well as an increasingly closer relationship of this Area (exception made for Malta and Cyprus who have become members of the European Union since 1st May 2004) with the European Union established in the framework of the Barcelona Process and further enhanced through the more recent European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP).

Besides, the economical stabilization pursued by the Governments in this area, the privatisation of significant sectors such as banking, the liberalization of trade and the adoption of policies encouraging foreign direct investments, do constitute all relevant factors for the promotion of FDIs in this area.

ICE, CONFINDUSTRIA, ABI, IPI e UMCE (Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises), with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Italian Ministry of Productive Activities and Regione Siciliana, have pooled together to promote an event in the field of the economic relations among Italy and the Countries of the southern side of the Mediterranean.

The event, which will take place in Palermo (Sicily) on 20th and 21st February 2006, will comprise: a Business Forum, Country presentations by Mediterranean Investment Promotion Agencies (Med IPAs), on site visit of Economic Zones and a core component dedicated to bilateral business meetings, an Italtrade Stand will be available for participants to bilateral business meetings. Besides, 12 Italian banks will attend the B2B meetings with information desks.

The project aims at:

enhancing the role that our Country and Sicily can play in the Mediterranean area;
promoting investments of the Italian enterprises in the whole area, considered as an increasingly integrated regional market;
strengthening industrial collaborations and business partnerships as a major component of markets integration.

Palermo, Palazzo dei Normanni

The choice of Sicily as the venue for these meetings in meant to emphasise the contribution that this island can give as a logistic platform.
Delegations from 13 Countries of the Mediterranean will participate to the planned event: Algeria, Cyprus, Egypto, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry for Production Activities will welcome the representatives of the corresponding Ministries from the twelve involved countries to attend.

Political and Institutional delegations coming from each single country will be accompanied by representatives of their banking system, by publishers and journalists, and by a delegation of entrepreneurs including the President of the local Association of Industrialists, the President or the Director General of the Investment Promotion Agency, several big entrepreneurs and a delegation of small/medium enterprises (10 to 15 per country), for a total of about 150-200 foreign participants.

The Italian Delegation will include authorities from our Government, big entrepreneurs, a considerable group of representatives of small/medium enterprises and representatives from the Italian banking industry.
A detailed list of Companies from the Mediterranean Area taking part in the event is available at Med Companies.

Main Sectors Involved
The sectors of activity which companies from the Mediterranean countries will represent are:

Agroindustry
Automotive
Building Construction
Chemicals
Cosmetics
Education
ICT
Energy
Electronics
Engineering
Environment
Fashion and Clothing
Furniture
Infrastructure
Machinery
Maritime
Materials
Services
Telecommunications
Textile, Leather & Accessories
Tourism