The 10th Plenary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) was inaugurated this morning during a ceremony addressed by Ilir Meta, Speaker of the Albanian Parliament, Edi Rama, Prime Minister of Albania, Lhou Lmarbouh, PAM President. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, also sent his customary message to the Assembly.

Parliamentarians from the National Assemblies of the PAM member states will have the opportunity to debate and exchange views on the situation in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as on the migration emergency and foreign terrorist fighters.

The meeting in Tirana will be dedicated to open debates on the future strategies and policies to be adopted by the Assembly. This exercise will facilitate PAM’s role in contributing effectively to the collective measures that the international community must undertake to face the many challenges of the Mediterranean region through the instruments offered by parliamentary diplomacy.

In addition to regional peace and security, the delegates will also tackle important themes such as the economic crisis, unemployment, climate change, water shortage, inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue, all elements necessary to counter violent extremism and ensure the promotion of political stability and socio-economic sustainable development.

Around 250 delegates, including high-level representatives from International Parliaments, the United Nations and other regional organisations, are participating and will also address the Plenary.

The first session of the Plenary was dedicated to the High-level debate on political developments and perspectives in the Mediterranean. The session was chaired by Mohammed Halaiqah, President of the PAM 1 st Standing Committee.

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews

The pilot project of producing electricity from solar energy for the city of Nabeul and the Mrezga of the water treatment station was presented in Nabeul.

The project, whose development cost is estimated at about 3 million dinars (1.25 million euro), is co-financed by the European Union to the tune of 2.3 million dinars (975,000 euro).

Work began in April 2015 and will continue until March 2017 (duration 24 months). According to allegations made by Ms. Barbara Cosentino from the Institute for University Cooperation, which coordinates the project, this project forms part of the South-Tunisie SUDEP program launched by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and created for support the cities of the Southern Neighbourhood in the implementation of urban development projects involving the exploitation of renewable energies.

Ms. Cosentino said that the project has two components: the installation of two photovoltaic power plants (one near the town and the other near the water treatment plant) and the training of technical and administrative staff of the town of Nabeul and dell’Onas regional management. The project will enable the production of 347 megawatts of photovoltaic electricity per year.

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews

The logistics sector of Tangier continues to attract foreign investors: after multinational Adidas and 3M, this time turn on French Decathlon Group, specializing in sporting goods, to undertake the management of warehouses for the handling of its products. By the end of 2016, in fact, Decathlon will carry out its logistics in the area dedicated to the Tanger Med port, called MedHub. It’s provided the use of an area of over 20,000 square meters of warehouses, which will be the logistics center of Decathlon in Tangier. It’ll be the second largest one in the world, after that of Singapore, which handles all the merchandise destined for Asian markets. Through the platform of Tangier, which initially will occupy 160 employees, Decathlon send their products to the markets of the Mediterranean and West Africa. As revealed by the Spanish press agency EFE, Decathlon would have selected between Tangiers ten alternative locations, but chose the Moroccan city thanks to the stability of the country, the number of ferry connections and the proximity of the logistics area at the cargo port. In the near future, Decathlon will assess the opening of another of identical size warehouse in an adjacent land.

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews

LThe Levant Investment Bank (LIBANK), Lebanese bank for private investment and manages a portfolio of investments of US $ 500 million, of which US $ 200 million for the Lebanese market and US $ 300 for the foreign market, bought investments in two IT companies (information technology) Lebanese: M media and Torch Sal, for a US $ 5.9 million, according to the circular 331 of the Lebanese Central Bank.

In the Torch in Sal, launched in December 2015, the LIBANK bought the 68% to US $ 3.4 million. The activity of this start-up focuses on programming, coding, mobile applications and cloud computing. It has for aim to help entrepreneurs develop new ideas for mobile applications and to educate them so that they transform their ideas into business ventures. It will offer scholarships to graduates. Finally, the Torch Sal connect entrepreneurs to financiers to help them develop their business.

In the M media, launched in 2012, the LIBANK bought 12.5% to US $ 2.5 million.

The M media is presented as a platform for the sale of e-books online. In 2016, they will be released 5 episodes and a film version of a play room. This platform is open to the entire Middle East region.

The LIBANK also bought a third software company, always according to Circular 331 of the Lebanese Central Bank. This company is developing a software program for banking services. This acquisition will become official after receiving approval from the Central Bank.

The LIBANK, which has a branch in London in charge of putting on the stock exchange the PMI. It was said that the same will be do in Lebanon if the Lebanese Central Bank will create the ETP platform (electronic trading platform). This platform will have for mission to provide liquidity to start-ups and the PMI that will put their actions on it.

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews

With a rise of one point on the expected target of 6.5% inflation rate in 2016 the increase in the price of red meat represents a critical factor on consumption. Therefore, the government precisely to avert a further reduction, it will ease the cost of permits for the import of meat.

Rising food prices and the depreciation of the lira were indicated by the Turkish Minister of Economy Mustafa Elitas as the two main factors that influenced the inflationary trend of recent years.

The operation on permits for import is part of a more structured plan to rein in the general inflation trend.

Good news for the many Italian companies of industry and trade of meat and dairy products in Turkey could record in perspective a rising in market share.

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews

The European Union launched in Tunis the program to support competitiveness of services (PACS) for Tunisia. The program funded by the European Union with a donation of 20 million euro aims to support economic operators in various sectors, providing them with more tools to be more competitive in international markets. The areas included in the program are: healthcare, transport, logistics, telecommunications and tourism. The PACS program has three priorities: strategic support to the Ministry of Commerce, direct technical assistance to about 500 businesses and support the implementation of a quality insurance system for 30 public and private hospitals. The service sector in Tunisia accounts for 63.3% of the national GDP. “The program allows Tunisian economic actors to address the challenge of innovation and make their products more competitive, while helping to create growth and jobs in the regions”, Laura Baeza said.

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews

The Renault – Nissan group released the production data in 2015 of its factories in Morocco: in Melloussa (Tangier) and in Somaca (Casablanca). In these two factories there were assembled 288,053 cars, all under the Dacia brand, with a growth rate of 26% compared to 2014. Tangier is the factory that had the highest growth of production (229,025 cars; 79,5% of the total) while in Casablanca were assembled 59 028 vehicles, corresponding to the remaining 20.5%. There are produced four models of Dacia in Morocco: Sandero (143,049 units, 49.7%), Dokker (71,515 units, 24.8%), Logan (40,826, 14.2%) and Lodgy (32,663, 11.3 %). The export of  vehicles (equal to 256,500 units) followed a positive trend (+ 25%) almost identical to that of production; Tangier is the factory that mostly works for export (94% of the cars there assembalte). The three main foreign markets of destination of Dacia cars “Made in Morocco” are France, Spain and Turkey which account for over 45% of exports. The Renault – Nissan group has in Morocco a workforce of 9,653 employees. It has also organized an international logistics platform (ILN), which stores parts and components manufactured by 19 vendors in Morocco and sends them to other factories in Brazil, India, Colombia, Romania and Argentina. In 2015 the components of traffic passed through the largest cargo port of Tanger Med has reached the volume of 86,617 cubic meters equivalent to 1,425 containers.

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews

The European Union will provide a loan of 35 million euro (38.5 million) to build and equip nine plants for sorting and composting of waste in North and South of the country. The Office of the Minister of State for Administrative Reform (OMSAR) is in charge of the launch of tenders for the construction and equipping of establishments in Baalbeck, Srar Akkar, Tripoli, Dannieh in North and Bint, Jbeil, Nabatieh and Tyre in South. OMSAR with the municipalities concerned will manage the tenders for the operation of facilities and the state will pay the costs for the first year. The cost of waste treatment, including transportation, should be around the $ 25 per tonne.

(ITALPRESS/MNA).

Source: medNews