On 12 and 13 November, Hon. Giulio Centemero, co-President of the PAM Panel on Trade and Investments in the Mediterranean, and Ambassador Sergio Piazzi, PAM Secretary General, represented the Assembly at the conference “the South Days: Southern Italy meets Morocco”.
The meeting was co-organized, under the high patronage of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, by the Italian Confederation of Industry (Unione Industriali di Napoli and Confindustria Caserta) and the Fondazione per la Sussidiarietà. These institutions, already in the past, hosted major events of the PAM 2nd Standing Committee.
Over two days, in Naples and Caserta, state representatives from Italy and Morocco, regional economic institutions and the private sector, shared experiences and discussed the new opportunities for the Mediterranean region and Southern Italy, taking stock of the extraordinary development of the Moroccan Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and of the prospects offered by the single African market. The event, at its first edition, included plenary sessions, round tables and B2B, i.e. a number of bilateral meetings between Italian and Moroccan companies and entrepreneurs. Future editions will be dedicated to other countries of the PAM region, and the Assembly looks forward to promote similar encounters in other countries in order to facilitate investments, economic integration, job creations and trade opportunities.
The Conference benefitted from the contributions of H.E. Vincenzo Amendola, the Italian Minister for the European Affairs, H.E. Paola de Micheli, the Italian Minister for Infrastructures and Trasnports, Mr. Driss Benhima, Director General of the Moroccan Agency of Investment for Development and Exports, H.E. Youssef Balla, the Moroccan Ambassador in Italy and Hon. Andrea Cozzolino, the Head of the European Parliament delegation for relations with Maghreb countries and the Arab Maghreb Union.
Hon. Centemero briefed participants on the successful outcomes of the PAM meeting in Milan on alternative capital markets, which will become an annual event, and outlined the new “PAM Start Up Market” project, officially launched at the beginning of December. The project foresees the establishment of a digital platform that enables entrepreneurs, start-uppers and investors to meet, and will provide them with dedicated electronic tools to launch “capital calls” in a structured way. The platform intends to facilitate access to new investments opportunities, to bolster the economy and reinforce business relationships.
On his side, Amb. Piazzi highlighted the importance of the parliamentary diplomacy as a mean of dialogue between key Euro-Mediterranean actors. PAM, he continued, has a unique status in the region, and provides MPs from the Euro-Mediterranean and Gulf regions with a strategic forum to cooperate on the crucial challenges of our time. He further sketched a global picture of the sensible and highly instable political-economic situation of the Mediterranean, further aggravated by adverse climate conditions, which greatly affect a sustainable and robust economic growth in the region.