How can we reinforce the impact of investment on sustainable development in the Mediterranean? ANIMA provides answers and courses of action by publishing a study on “Socially Responsible Investment: What Strategy for the Mediterranean?” as part of the Invest in Med project, supported by the European Commission.
Investment is up until now hardly sustainable in the Mediterranean and does not produce all the effects hoped for in economic terms (growth, productivity) but also for society (creation of jobs and skills) and environment (conservation of natural resources). The study provides an outlook of the impacts of investment for the three cornerstones of sustainable development and then presents the stakes, strategies and tools for the four main categories of stakeholders of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) in the Mediterranean: the public authorities, the business support organisations, companies and financial players.
The study also proposes three series of recommendations intended for public bodies. They are accompanied by courses of action which could be implemented by ANIMA, its institutional partners and the networks of intermediate operators who work together within the MedAlliance.

The private equity industry has developed greatly in Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries since the 2000s, in particular within Arab countries, where it was rather confidential previously. Today, nearly 309 management companies are targeting the MED region and intervene via 534 investment funds. This report gives an updated panorama of private equity activity in the Med region, analysing its impact in terms of job and growth creation, highlighting new opportunities and studying its development potentials.

The ongoing deep social unrest shaking up most Med countries is largely a result of unbalanced economic growth. The sustainable development of the region calls for the strengthening of local investment promotion capabilities in order to help Mediterranean territories face a tougher national and international competition for investment, jobs and wealth.

This practical compendium comprises 10 case studies, which show different ways of:

• defining a promotion strategy (conducting a SWOT analysis or benchmark, internally or through a carefully-chosen consultancy);
• turning your promotion strategy into an effective communication plan (building an image/a brand, forging ahead with the right differentiating messages, favouring suitable tools and channels);
• fine-tuning your prospecting plan (identifying and canvassing your potential partners and targets, calibrating your tools).

Each case study provides:

• an institutional profile (allocated missions/means put into perspective, national and local economic or institutional peculiarities);
• an analysis of the organisation’s promotion strategy;
• an examination of its prospecting and communication plans (elaboration process, output and impact).

Study complete version

Caught between two crises (the world economic storm of the 2008-2009 and the Arab revolutions of early 2011), in 2010 the southern rim of the Mediterranean experienced a transition year marked by good achievements in terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction and international partnerships. 826 FDI projects of were announced in 2010, against 542 in 2009, that is +52%. The increase is less marked in terms of amounts: €33.2 billion against €28.4 billion in 2009, that is +17%. The international partnerships of companies continue for their part their increase: 493 projects in 2010, against 288 in 2009 (+71%). In 2010, the FDI created nearly 175 000 direct jobs (against 93 000 in 2009), and approximately 585 000 indirect jobs, that is more than 750 000 jobs on the whole. In spite of these strong achievements, the model of development of the Mediterranean countries partners of Europe appears disputed, through the changes in progress in particular in North Africa (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya): the dividends of the economic liberalisation hardly profit the whole population and are accompanied by adverse effects (strong concentration of the FDI on certain spaces, reduced local value added, sometimes negative impact on the environment or the culture, ousting of certain domestic companies to the profit of foreign operators etc). A model of development creating even more jobs, reinforcing the local industrial fabric, giving more importance to the initiatives of the South, better respecting social responsibility criteria, developing all the territory and population, still largely remains to be built…

 Mobilisation of the higly-skilled Diasporas is the new economic challenge for MED countries if they wish to accelerate their economic development in the context of globalisation. For most of the countries forming the MED region, it represents a "win-win" option, which could enable them to increase their sources of external revenues, to benefit from a multi-skilled human capital with a dual culture, and finally to attract more investment projects - initially modest but with a high added value and job prospects (ICT, renewable energy, agribusiness, etc.). Based upon the analysis of the contributions made by hundreds of Mediterranean Diaspora networks for the development of their countries of origin (a directory containing 470 networks of talents from the Mediterranean diaspora has been put together and complements the study), this study aims to bring answers to the following questions:

• For MED countries, how can the circulation of the diaspora’s skills be a positive phenomenon helping to reinforce the competitiveness of the economy and to reinforce the innovative abilities?
• On the ground, how can the networks of talents effectively meet domestic needs for productive investments and partnerships? How can the Diasporas’ talentslead, through funding, mentoring and coaching, to the emergence of the MED economic champions of tomorrow?

Based on the Chinese and Indian models which have widely used their skilled Diasporas to achieve their technological advances, MED countries should engage with Diasporas' talents using new types of cooperation, more pragmatic and more oriented towards the creation of added value. To move beyond declarations of intentions, ANIMA and Invest in Med propose a concrete and realistic plan of actions to accelerate the engagement of Mediterranean Diasporas’ talents in favour of their countries of origin.

The Meda finance study presents a exhaustive survey of grants and lines of credit offered by around 20 aid institutions offering novel non-banking financial instruments to support the economic development of the mediterranean region(Factoring, Leasing, Mortgage, ..etc).

The Medstatistics handbook that has just been published by the ASCAME in the framework of Invest in Med, presents the main statistical data needed by economic actors to establish business in the Mediterranean, whether it is to invest or to export. A perception analysis of the performance of the different Mediterranean countries is also established.