“I am delighted to be here today in Marseille at Villa Valmer, which now contains the headquarters of the Marseille Centre for Mediterranean Integration (MCMI), a key protagonist in shaping the modernisation of public policy in the Mediterranean region. MCMI acts as an accelerator of development and economic integration for the Mediterranean partner countries. Innovation is already MCMI’s main focus, the illustration of its partnership capability and force.”
Philippe de Fontaine Vive
Joint Chairman of MCMI’s Strategy Committee
EIB Vice-President
Innovation – an emerging priority for economic development. This was the topic of the press conference held in Marseille at Villa Valmer, the headquarters of MCMI. The press conference was chaired by Philippe de Fontaine Vive, Joint Chairman of MCMI’s Strategy Committee and EIB Vice-President, in the presence of MCMI’s managerial team, in particular its Director, Mats Karlsson, and the Centre’s partner members.
Innovation is a key development priority for the Mediterranean partner countries, serving to facilitate greater integration of national economies within the Mediterranean while accelerating the upgrading of enterprises and training bodies to ensure greater international competitiveness. On that basis, the EIB has made innovation FEMIP’s priority action area, channelling loans totalling over EUR 300m since 2002 in support of large-scale projects such as, in Tunisia, the creation of five specialised technology parks and the establishment of the first network of business angels to encourage innovative businesses. In support of this FEMIP policy, the EIB has made the promotion of innovation the focus of MCMI’s activity, devoting the 7th FEMIP Conference held in Tunis on 15 March 2010 to this topic. Among the conclusions of that conference was a call for the establishment of a Euro-Mediterranean area for innovation and the pooling of experience and expertise in the field of the knowledge economy.
The presentation of the guidebook to technology parks in the Mediterranean at this conference came about as a result of successful cooperation between the EIB, the World Bank, Medibtikar and the City of Marseille. The specific aim of this guide is to help decision-makers to plan and manage a technology park so that it can become a major attraction and an asset for the economic viability of the countries concerned, in particular by minimising the cost of institutionalised constraints that have in the past held back cooperation between the economic players. This guide is a unique and pioneering tool, the centrepiece of the key role set to be played by innovation in the Mediterranean along with integration, as underlined at the close of the conference by the EIB Vice-President: “I am convinced that thanks to its unique economic integration role, the Marseille Centre will serve to move forward our discussions and pave the way for a true innovation strategy for the Mediterranean. The EIB will continue to make all its financial instruments available to the partner countries, in cooperation with the Marseille Centre, with the aim of improving the living conditions of the inhabitants of the Mediterranean region.”
Note to editors
The EIB, a founding member of the Marseille Centre for Mediterranean Integration
The Marseille Centre for Mediterranean Integration (MCMI) is a partnership platform created jointly on 9 October 2009 by the EIB, the World Bank, the Governments of Egypt, France, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia and the City of Marseille. Its role is specifically geared to helping development players, both internationally and those in countries on the northern and southern shores of the Mediterranean, to work together to modernise public policy in priority development sectors in the Mediterranean partner countries.
MCMI’s fields of activity include five sectors comprising 14 technical assistance programmes focusing on urban spatial development, sustainable development and climate change prevention, transport and logistics, human capital (skills, employment and mobility of workers, including young people), the knowledge economy and support for innovation.
As a founding member of MCMI, the EIB is managing the following three programmes: urban renewal under its Medinas 2030 initiative presented in Marseille in October 2009 at an international conference on the restoration of medinas; the organisation of the transport logistics system in the Mediterranean under its Logismed initiative; and the financing of innovation and support for the science parks development policy.
MCMI's Strategy Committee is co-chaired by Minister Abdelhamid Triki, Secretary of State with responsibility for international cooperation for foreign investment in Tunisia, and Mr Philippe de Fontaine Vive, EIB Vice-President.
FEMIP, the leading development financier in the Mediterranean with over EUR 10bn invested since 2002
The Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) brings together the whole range of services provided by the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the Mediterranean partner countries. Operational since October 2002, it is now the key player in the economic and financial partnership between Europe and the Mediterranean, providing over EUR 10bn in support of projects in the nine Mediterranean partner countries. Its two priority areas for investment are private sector development – a key factor for sustainable growth – and the creation of an investment-friendly environment via effective infrastructure and suitable banking systems.
FEMIP strongly encourages dialogue between the two shores of the Mediterranean both at institutional level and with representatives of the private sector and civil society.
FEMIP activity in the Mediterranean - key figures:
Between 2002 and 2009, total FEMIP investment amounted to EUR 10bn, broken down as follows:
- 143 projects financed
- 1 900 SMEs assisted
- 25 000 jobs created
- 105 technical assistance operations carried out, totalling nearly EUR 100m
La BEI, membre fondateur du centre de Marseille pour l'intégration en Méditerranée
La FEMIP : des projets concrets pour une ambition commune en Méditerranée