An international forum in Barcelona addresses how to boost growth and investment in North Africa

20 November 2018 | Press release

The North Africa Business and Development Forum will take place on Wednesday, November 21 in Barcelona within the framework of the Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders.

Entrepreneurs, presidents of chambers of commerce and business associations, experts and governmental and institutional representatives from the two shores of the Mediterranean will debate in Barcelona about the main challenges and instruments for business development and investment in the region. They will also explore business opportunities in the new African continental free trade zone (AfCFTA) and the economic integration of the Euro-Mediterranean region.

They will do so at the XIV edition of the North African Business and Development Forum, which will take place in Barcelona’s Llotja de Mar next Wednesday, November 21 from 10.15 am within the framework of the Mediterranean Week of Economic Leaders. The forum is organized since 2002 by the IEMed, the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce and ASCAME.

The forum will feature, among others, Anaël Le Bihan, ASCAME’s head of cooperation projects; Arslan Chikhaoui, President of the Nord Sud Ventures Strategy Consultancy Center; Houda Benghazi, director of the Morocco-Spain Economic Council; Fathallah Sijilmassi, former Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM); Roger Albinyana, director of Mediterranean regional policies and human development (IEMed), and Yanis Benyelles, director of Co Ges Developpement.

The forum includes a session in which various experts and entrepreneurs will explore the potential in the region of new forms of collaborative economy based on new technologies, as well as the complicated relationship that entrepreneurs in this sector sometimes have with regulations. The session will feature Mar Alarcón (SocialCar); Rym Bourguiba (Business and Decision, Tunisia); Mondher Jaziri (Owl Lab, Tunisia).

The North African Business and Development Forum was born in 2002 to promote the role of private companies in the Maghreb and is an annual meeting point for businessmen, experts, and governmental and institutional representatives.