The President of BUSINESSMED and Vice President for Internationalization of Confindustria, Mrs. Barbara Beltrame Giacomello, launched the kick-off meeting of the project on November 24th, with the participation of high-level profiles, among which the Union for the Mediterranean, the Tunisian Ministry of Investment and International Cooperation and consortium members coming from 6 Euromed countries. The INVESTMED project aims at supporting new, sustainable business opportunities for young people and women in three Mediterranean Partner Countries: Egypt, Lebanon and Tunisia.

INVESTMED will impact MSMEs, start-ups and recently established MSMEs where staff will be trained and coached to become more sustainable, competitive and financially supported via an open competition. Specific business incubation services will be established for sustainable start-ups while relevant public authorities will benefit from capacity building and exchange of best practices to facilitate access and protect the intellectual property right for MSMEs.

During her opening speech, the president of BUSINESSMED declared: “It is our duty to support youth by creating a backing environment and facilitating access to new markets with an ultimate goal of generating new economic opportunities and jobs where no one is left behind. We have to look at the future; and what lies ahead will be even more challenging since we will continue promoting gender diversity by empowering women entrepreneurs and unlocking their potential in the sustainable Industries. We will emphasize that gender equality is prerequisite for economic development…INVESTMED will be our opportunity to revisit the nexus of entrepreneurship and sustainability to build an interactive framework for the entrepreneurial journey for the youth of the Mediterranean.”

Speaking on behalf of the Tunisian Ministry of Investment, Development and International Cooperation, Mrs. Samira Rafrafi said in her speech: "This strategic call for projects financed 23 projects, Tunisia was a partner in 18 of them with the involvement of 30 public and private organizations including 2 as the leader and BUSINESSMED one of them. It is now important to successfully implement this project and the Minister is there to help with all the resources at his disposal. »

During her intervention during the press conference, Natalia Menhall, Consultant and Partner  at Beyond Reform and Development (BRD)  / Irada Group Lebanon declared: “. Our role in this project as an institution that has expertise in the region is to design the guidebook on IPR and commercialization so we will be in charge of outreach and mapping of legal frameworks and LTA in Lebanon. We will also collaborate with other member of the consortium on trainings”

The project includes also two strategic partners in Egypt, the Confederation of the Egyptian European Business Associations (CEEBA) and the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (Alexandria Chamber), who will be responsible for technical support in many activities.

Among the expected results of the project, 315 young graduates, entrepreneurs, and start-ups led by young women entrepreneurs will benefit from an ad hoc training program that will develop 42 new entrepreneurial ideas. INVESTMED will also enable the training of 10 employees of the public authorities of the target Mediterranean countries who will subsequently guide the newly created companies to the protection of intellectual property.

INVESTMED is coordinated by BUSINESSMED, the Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises, as part of a consortium of 9 partners and 4 associates representing different Countries of the Euro-Mediterranean Region coming from Egypt, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, Spain and Tunisia.

The INVESTMED project has a duration of 30 months and is co-funded by the European Union under the ENI CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme 2014-2020.