This guidebook is the first step of a surveying and mapping work of the economic activity in the Mediterranean, undertaken by the Invest in Med programme to help countries to better understand and compare themselves.
However, the main purpose is to provide investors, especially foreigners, who target 9 of the Southern Mediterranean countries benefiting from the Invest in Med programme, with an operational tool that would help them in answering the following questions:

• What are the countries that wish to promote the development of enterprises in my sector?
• What are the regions in which my business can grow? What are the infrastructures, industrial or economic zones in which I am likely to find partners, sub-contractors, competitors?
• What are the facilitating policies that affect me? Whom to contact to activate them?

Users of this guide have the choice between 3 gateways to access to information: a captioned map per country that offers a view of the key sectors in the country and the main infrastructures and zones in which the economic development is polarised; for each country, a set of summary sheets on the industrial strategy, the country position vis-à-vis foreign investors, the sectors of specialisation by region; for 15 major sectors whose development is considered a priority by the Med countries, the list of countries where each of them is present and, for each country, a fact sheet on the challenges, opportunities, players and contacts for this sector.

Investors looking at the Mediterranean markets with fresh eyes often need direction signs to identify opportunities. This pack provides a first list of 25 sub-sectors and niche markets both invested by pioneers and qualified as attractive and sustainable by the ANIMA Intelligence team. Next to the mainstream investment projects in real estate, mass tourism or banking, those niches prefigure tomorrow's MED economic landscape. They cover both traditional sectors (textile, tourism, etc.) and new activities (facility management, integrated logistics, vocational & educational training, etc.).

The ANIMA team has selected these sub-sectors by considering the needs and strengths of the region and its economic positioning. New investment in the identified fields should therefore help:

- add value or differentiating features to sub-sectors facing a fierce international competition (technical textiles, tourist diversification, agro-transformation, etc.);

- develop entirely new activities, thanks to new technologies or opportunities offered by the economic globalisation (3D modeling, offshore web design, health tourism, etc.);

- create new green markets in the Mediterranean, addressing the needs of a rapid urban growth and accompanying the ongoing industrial take-off (energy efficiency, social housing, waste management, environmental studies, etc.).

Foreign direct investment (FDI) directed towards Med countries has been on a downward trend since 2007. In 2008, the 13 countries from the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean monitored by ANIMA started to be hit by the global financial and economic crisis: they received a little less than EUR 40 billion in announced FDI over 2008 (-35%). The total number of detected projects (778) only dropped by 6%. Many of these projects however are either scaled down or cancelled. After few years of skyrocketing Gulf investments, European companies have become once again the largest investors in the region.

There remain, however, good reasons for hope. For a sizeable number of companies still, European or not, the Mediterranean appears as a solution, a possible recourse in terms of market, cost control or partnerships. In Ancient Greek, the word κρίσις, or crisis, means the ‘time for decision’. This is the great industrial challenge of the Euro-Mediterranean region: finding, in those troubled times, an original mode of economic cooperation which will benefit the two shores of the Mediterranean over the long run.

Find out the most recent data, all the analyses of our experts, the latest trends about Mediterranean foreign direct investment in the 2007 edition of the ANIMA FDI observatory (MIPO).

An up to date and unprecedented overview of the Mediterranean Private Equity industry. From Morocco to Turkey, from its beginnings in the 1990s to its current phase of growth, this study (short version) reports on a promising source of financing, especially for the region’s SMEs.

Following the recent creation of an Investment Promotion Agency (IPA) in Syria, ANIMA proposed to the Syrian authorities to make a quick update of the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) situation in the country, to have a look at the new institutional and legal sheme and to provide advice on a possible in-depth technical assistance in order to transform the existing "Investment Bureau" (IB) into a fully professional and equipped Syrian Investment Agency (SIA).