Brussels, 03/04/2013 (Agence Europe) - The small and medium sized enterprise (SME) - both in the North and in the South - faced with the search for funding will be the subject of the EuroMed Capital Forum, the fourth session of which will take place in Tunis on 30-31 May under the title of Growth and Jobs in the Countries bordering the Mediterranean: Recovery?
“Equity financing for SMEs on both shores of the Mediterranean constitutes a major issue for the economic development of these regions and for the creation of jobs”, says the president of the forum, Dominique Nouvellet. He states that “the objective of this forum is to bring together all the actors for financing SMEs on both shores of the Mediterranean around tangible themes, developed by professionals, and in the presence of entrepreneurs who will give their own objective accounts”. “Debt” is no longer possible, he says, when “talented entrepreneurs are trying to meet the challenge of growth, in spite of the economic and political ups and downs of the current time”.
The discussions will be very “tangible”, he states (our translation throughout). This commitment is to be taken at a time when all the projects created as part of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) are having trouble in mobilising financing - except the water desalination project in Gaza, of which half the cost will be covered cost by Islamic funding. This is an action that is more political than financial.
The themes for discussion in the workshops in Tunis at the end of May are: - recent economic and financial changes: their effect on SMEs and employment; - the evolution of the taxation of investment funds and new regulations; - the entrepreneur and capital investment; - innovation: catalyst for creating value and jobs in the future. (FB/transl.fl)