INNOVATION – Mediterranean countries strengthen their capacities to face the COVID-19 crisis

“The first days of the Covid-19 pandemic showed what can be achieved in Mediterranean countries when we put resources into solving real problems and challenges,” says Àurea Rodriguez, director of the Business Innovation Unit at the Catalan Agency for Business Competitiveness ACCIO. Her claim is backed up by Emmanuel Noutary, general delegate of the Anima Investment Network, who adds, “The Covid-19 pandemic has tested the agility of these regions. It has put public sector stakeholders at the centre of things, with the urgent need to help small businesses, support jobs and provide a safety net for the least well-off.”

“One third of regional businesses we surveyed reported difficulties with supplies and a quarter had transport problems. Relocating value chains has thus become a major issue once more for the economy’s stakeholders,” points out Jean-François Royer, managing director of risingSUD. The Région SUD’s economic development agency has been involved in setting up a regional recovery plan that provides businesses with three new schemes: the SUD Relocation Pack (economic intelligence support to find new local partners), the Industrial Recovery and Equity Fund (€60M investment in new industrial sectors) and the Parcours SUD Industrie 4.0 scheme (support and financing for modernizing industrial companies).

“Mediterranean innovation stakeholders are capable of lifting their countries out of the crisis.”

As soon as the first lockdown was declared in Tunisia in March, the FIPA “set up a crisis unit to protect the business activities and exports of foreign entities,” reminds Zied Lahbib, sales director for Tunisia’s Foreign Investment Promotion Agency.

Read the full article on Econostrum.info