Mediterranean Business Network
Mediterranean development starts with small and medium businesses
ANTHONY MANDUCA attended a "summit" of 15 business organisations in Milan which was held at the Palazzo Affari Ai Giureconsulti, where the the Milan Chamber of Commerce is based. The meeting was held in connection with the Mediterranean Business Network which was formed last April.
Investment funds aimed at promoting joint ventures, electronic commerce and business training were the three projects launched by the Mediterranean Business Network in Milan last Monday. These projects are targeted at small and medium sized businesses.
Fifteen Chambers of Commerce and other economic institutions from the region attended the meeting. The Malta Chamber of Commerce was represented by its director general, Anthony Borg Cardona.
Network members include some of the largest European Chambers of Commerce, such as Milan, Barcelona, Lyon and Athens (which together represent about one million firms), and also several important north African institutions, namely the Federation of Egyptian Industries, the Algerian Chamber of Commerce, the Rabat and Tunis Chambers of Commerce, as well as those in the Middle East, such as Istanbul, Damascus, Amman and Beirut. The federations of the Israeli and Palestinian Chambers of Commerce and the Chamber of Commerce of Cyprus also took part.
"The main aim of the MED-BN network of economic institutions is to develop and promote integration between small and medium businesses from the north and south Mediterranean region," stated Bruno Ermolli, president of Promos, an institution specially set up by the Milan Chamber of Commerce to tackle issues regarding globalisation in business. "We firmly believe that this will set off a series of positive chain reactions for all of the region's economies in terms of increased production, employment and income. The objective is to also encourage further
economic integration in the Mediterranean region, leading to greater competitiveness by companies operating there. The presentation of MED-BN and associated projects in Milan confirms the fact that our city and all of Lombardy is focusing on the Mediterranean region as a natural reference point for development projects," he said.
An agreement that gave the go-ahead to establishing the Mediterranean network between the 15 partners was signed in Milan on 3 April this year. As a result of this agreement, a permanent secretariat was set up at the Milan Chamber of Commerce and a small committee made up of the Milan and Barcelona Chambers of Commerce was founded.
Projects so far presented include a joint venture investment fund between SMEs in France, Italy, Spain and Greece and those in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Lebanon and Turkey. Both international institutions and major banking groups are expected to be involved in the fund with the specific aim of financing projects linked to new technologies and particularly mindful of environmental protection. Training courses will be set up for southern Mediterranean small and medium entrepreneurs working in SMEs in northern Mediterranean countries. As regards e-commerce, a forum bringing together ministers from countries in the region is scheduled for September. This will pave the way for projects to create a virtual campus and market and to define common regulations governing digital signature certification.
1) Financial tool for SMEs in the Mediterranean area
The finance project was presented by Milan Chamber of Commerce. One of the prime objectives of the MED-BN Network is to promote the setting up of joint ventures as a way of increasing business and raising the technological level of small and medium enterprises in the Mediterranean area and consequently improving their competitive capacity in a market which will in the future be increasingly integrated.
In particular, the MED-BN Network intends to establish itself as a point of reference for firms which wish to carry out such operations, by offering them the tools necessary for the correct interpretation and definition of their financial needs, and also the best opportunities for obtaining adequate financial resources.
The greatest difficulty in promoting effective industrial partnerships or joint ventures is the lack of finance for SMEs.
In this connection, the Business Network has considerable potential in a number of respects:
the potential inherent in the institutional representativeness of the MED-BN partners in relation to the respective systems of firms and the close relationship which they have with many of the most successful SMEs in their area;
the potential deriving from the detailed knowledge of their needs and demands for new relations with SMEs abroad;
the potential which will derive from the setting up and consolidation of the MED-BN Network.
The MED-BN Network will in fact constitute a highly effective tool for the mobilitation, selection and matching of a wide range of firms interested in new joint venture operations.
The MED-BN Network will be an institution with the authority and credibility necessary to relate with national, transnational and multilateral financial institutions for the purpose of promoting joint collaboration in order to set up the financial tools necessary for the creation of joint ventures. One of the tasks of the Network promoters will therefore be to promote the creation of financial tools which can effectively support the process of integration of firms in the Mediterranean.
It would, for instance, be possible to set up an investment fund for joint ventures between companies from the Mediterranean area, which would be part of a framework of promotion activities undertaken in the context of the network of MED-BN partners.
In particular, the fund will focus its activities in joint ventures involving firms from Spain, Italy, France and Greece and other Mediterranean countries.
The fund will aim to acquire a minority stake in the share capital of the joint venture company set up in the partners countries in the Mediterranean area. The choice of investments and projects will be made according to a project financing logic, on the basis of ROI analysis and business risk assessment.
The fund will be promoted by the entire MED-BN Network, which will be responsible for stimulating the demand for resources by promoting joint projects in the area. Moreover, the network will also enable companies to develop joint venture projects through the availability of ad hoc funds to be used for undertaking feasibility studies.
The fund will be mainly oriented at operations carried out by SMEs in the area. Consequently, the size of investments should be in the region of US$1-3m dollars with a participating stake not exceeding US$1m.
All sectors will be considered, but emphasis will be given to those investments which promise satisfactory financial performance. For this reason, particular interest will be shown in the hi-tech sectors and projects linked to the market for new technologies and the new economy. In the evaluation of an investment, special attention will be given to projects demonstrating with respect for the environmental ecosystem.
In meetings already held with representatives of the IFC (International Finance Corporation), considerable interest was shown in the creation of a tool of this kind.
The role of the IFC will be that of fund participant, in line with the corporation's guidelines, together with the pool of listed European banks. Furthermore, by its very presence, it will also indirectly act as guarantor that development policies and regulations for the private sector in the countries covered by the fund are respected.
The meeting in Milan on the third of July will provide an opportunity for discussions among the partners of the MED-BN with the aim of identifying the banks to involve in the initiative. The next step will be to organise a meeting between banks interested in taking part in the project and the IFC in order to define the technical content of the operation.
2) E-commerce projects and the MED-BN portal
The e-commerce project was presented by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce.
The MED-BN Network has the following objectives:
to achieve a wider distribution among SMEs in the Mediterranean area of the knowledge and skills required by the new technolog-
ies of information processing and
communications;
to be able, as a result, to increase the capacity of the Euro-Mediterranean SMEs to penetrate foreign markets and increase their business, by exploiting the opportunities offered by the internet;
to increase the ability of these SMEs to interact with each other and to access in real time a far larger amount of information useful for their business activities.
The tool
The above objectives will be achieved through the establishment of an integrated web system, consisting of a horizontal portal which will provide general services and information about the network. It will give SMEs access to a set of databanks and on-line services to enable the development of cooperation and business activities, and will constitute a starting point for the creation of vertical portal for specific sectors.
The target
The reference targets are the following:
SMEs, which will have access to information services, communication, training and consultancy on the subject of business management;
the members of MED-BN;
institutions, organisations and public and private bodies;
peripheral administrative bodies of the countries involved.
The horizontal portal
The horizontal portal will consist of three macro-areas:
an area relative to E-commerce (B2B and B2C)
an area of services characterising the MED-BN portal;
an area of complementary
services.
As far as E-commerce is concerned, the portal will be divided into three sub-areas:
General information
E-commerce guide for SMEs
E-commerce tutoring and training for the SMEs
General information
The objective is the spread of information regarding E-commerce in order to promote a business culture which is attentive to the technological transformations which is taking place both in terms of the changes in internal processes as well as the possibility of increasing turnovers through dealings on the net.
E-commerce guide for SMEs
The guide explains all the technical, commercial and legal aspects relative to the implementation of an E-commerce activity.
E-commerce tutoring and training for the SMEs
The objective is to assist with the implementation of E-commerce projects for SMEs in the Mediterranean area.
It is foreseeing the set up of a system of tutoring of the SMEs both regarding the technological training access to the Network as well as regarding an improved usage of Internet as an interactive marketing tool. This could be implemented through specific seminars with experts.
The area of services of the MED-BN portal offered to SMEs will include information about commercial activities and marketing; information about economic operators in the area; information about finance; calendar of events (information about shows and trade fairs); digital certification service (MedSign); activities of matching between demand and supply of goods and services; on-line training courses; search for partners.
Information on commercial activities and marketing
SMEs will be provided with fundamental notions on undertaking a search for customers and commercial partners, analysis of the competition, diagnosis of marketing problems, the evaluation of financial solvency and credit checking of customers through commercial information provided in real time.
Information on economic operators in the area
Lists will be provided of economic operators (such as producers, importers, wholesalers, distributors, department stores, agents and representatives, and so on). This will be done through contact with official organisations such as Chambers of Commerce, Chamber of Industry Associations of enterprises in the Euro-Mediterranean area, the offices of the commercial secretariats of embassies and consulates, the Foreign Trade Institute offices round the world and other officially recognised promotional organisations.
Information on finance
The service will provide information in the specific context of financial planning, particularly with regard to the restructuring of the qualitative and quantitative mix of short and medium term indebtedness.
Information on shows and trade fairs
Information will be provided on shows and trade fairs held in the Mediterranean area in order to encourage the SMEs to take part in such events.
Digital Certification
The digital certification service will contribute to the creation of a safe environment for businesses to conduct commercial transactions over the Internet. SMEs will have access to information about digital certification and specifically MedSign and ChamberSign.
Commercial and marketing activities
A specific horizontal E-marketplace will be provided for the SMEs. This will allow individual firms to achieve an optimised exchange of goods and services through automatic matching mechanisms of demand and supply.
Search for partners
This service will permit the SMEs to search for suitable financial, industrial or commercial partners in order to carry out business projects or strategies of internationalisation, R&D and so on, which require the creation of synergies in order to reduce costs or achieve sufficient economies of scale. It will be possible, for example, to provide a service of matching between demand and supply of risk capital, allowing those interested in opportunities for innovative financing to be able to contact potential financial partners in order to carry out their projects.
3) The training programme
The MED-BN Network attributes great importance to the cooperation between SMEs in the Mediterranean area and therefore intends to set up a programme of training in order to promote both the "culture" and technical elements relating to cooperation and ways in which this can be put into practice (through joint ventures, agreements for cooperative production, and so on).
The complementarity existing between numerous European industrial districts and fileres and the filieres and sectors in expansion in the Mediterranean area constitutes a valuable resource for the transfer of entrepreneurial and technological know-how from Europe. This can be achieved through training activities and tutorship carried out during the implementation of cooperation agreements between firms, as well as through programmes run prior to the drawing up of such agreements.
Target of the training activities
In line with the objectives already set out, the training programme will be aimed in particular at the following categories:
entrepreneurs and managers of SMEs which are in the initial stages of the process of internationalisation;
entrepreneurs and managers who foresee, in their growth strategy, the creation of partnerships or joint
ventures;
officials of government bodies, institutions of financial intermediation and other organisations which in some way provide services for SMEs;
trainers and consultants operating independently and also from training institutions, with the aim of achieving a "multiplier effect" in the professional skills of the categories specified above.
Contents
The training programme will be based as far as possible on knowledge of the entrepreneurial realities in Europe, and especially the Mediterranean area, regarding the economic, institutional and cultural aspects. It will be aimed at entrepreneurs and institutional operators belonging to specific sectors or filieres.
It is proposed that MED-BN should concentrate initially on two priority training programmes, aimed respectively at fostering the skills of:
Operators involved in joint ventures and partnerships, and trainers with the aim of offering them training programme with contents which are essential for the creation and management of joint ventures and other forms of cooperation between firms. In particular:
methodologies which allow the identification of new opportunities for cooperation able to generate added value;
methodologies to manage the principal functions and activities of the cooperative agreements;
methodologies to monitor joint productive activities, which will focus on subjects relating to the various aspects of the planning and the financial, productive and commercial management of joint ventures, as well as themes relating to applications of ICT to business operations.
Entrepreneurs and business managers of firms in a phase of internationalisation
This is aimed at developing the skills of entrepreneurs in the Mediterranean in the areas of international marketing and trade, merchandising, services, quality, technical standards, ICT, and environment.
Training delivery methods
In order to guarantee the quality and didactic effectiveness of the courses, and at the same time to reduce costs, it is planned to make use of a number of different teaching methods, including:
classroom teaching,
tutorship,
lectures by experts in the field and guided visits to European companies,
distance teaching.
Classroom training and company case studies
Classroom teaching will be delivered through intervention by the teacher and the presentation of case studies.
Talks given by experts in the field, will help to spread successful experience which can be used as a reference model and examples of best practice, providing participants with the opportunity to share their experience.
Tutorship by firms
The proposed system of tutorship is an innovative approach to training, able to define and implement medium and long-term projects, such as the research and development of new forms of distribution, new production processes and new materials.
The role of the tutor firms will range from support by entrepreneurs in the application of economic and business tools and methodologies to the development of real forms of industrial cooperation and/or services.
Guided visits to firms
Guided visits are proposed as part of the course, in order to allow participants to get to know and understand practical business realities in the light of the knowledge, models and keys of interpretation learned during the classroom sessions, in order to establish direct relations which could be useful to the participants for possible future collaboration projects.
The MED-BN Network will be responsible for stipulating agreements and conventions with relevant economic categories or other representative bodies or services to SMEs, in particular those belonging to industrial districts and other forms of sectoral concentrations. These will represent privileged "places" for the development of agreements, networks and other forms of inter-
company cooperation. They will also act as promoters of the project within their specific reality, identifying and indicating firms which are particularly significant for the purpose of case studies, and the planned guided visits.
Distance learning
Distance learning integrates information and communication technology development and training. It eliminates time and distance restraints upon the professional growth of the participants.
With distance learning, in fact, several objectives can be achieved simultaneously as follows:
increase of the number of trainees within the same training activity;
reduction of training programme access costs;
better time management for both trainees and trainers;
direct, continuous and real timer contact with the trainers without the necessity of travelling.
All distance learning is based on relatively short courses, with specific themes, self evaluation systems and interactive functions between trainees and trainers.
After an experimental phase centred on one or two pilot projects, the MED-BN intends to gradually set up a more complete network of training programmes based on the strategic priorities of the network, and involving universities, training bodies
connected with the Chambers of Commerce and other associations, and the leading training centres in the Euro-Mediterranean area.
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