Arslan Chikhaoui, Chairman of Algerian ODYSSEA partner Nord Sud Ventures (NSV), presented opportunities for entrepreneurship offered by the European Union strategy for Blue Growth in general, and the EU-funded ODYSSEA project in particular, to representatives of the business communities of France and the wider Mediterranean region, in a meeting held in Paris on February 2.
Representatives of the Union of Mediterranean Confederations of Enterprises (BUSINESSMED) and MEDEF took part in the discussion. This was held in the context of NSV’s recently launched information campaign promoting the opportunities presented by the implementation of project activities among influential private-sector stakeholders in Algeria and neighbouring countries on both coasts of the Mediterranean.
“Our longstanding relationships with national decision-makers and international forums will help us optimise the impact of ODYSSEA activities and results,” Chikhaoui said. “We have a concrete chance to enhance transfer of know-how and build innovation capacity in all North Africa in real partnership with some of the most important actors from the industry and the knowledge sector in the field of Blue Growth in the European Union.”
“Today, Blue Growth is a source of opportunities for entrepreneurs, a generator of employment for the youth and a tool for enriching and strengthening a sustainable development in North Africa. We absolutely need to engage the business community institutional actors,” Chikhaoui stressed.
His collocutors recognised ODYSSEA as an important initiative connecting the enormous progress and potential created by the advances made through Operational Oceanography with the needs of the maritime businesses. This is also done to support the engagement of public authorities in the Mediterranean to follow a sustainable path of economic growth.
Business community organisations will be key for promoting ODYSSEA’s connection with the real economy at the local level, through the products and services that are expected to emerge from the establishment and operation of the ODYSSEA Platform and Observatories.
In turn, BUSINESSMED representatives will emphasise the new perspectives opened by ODYSSEA for entrepreneurship in North Africa, and for further cooperation between the business communities of the Maghreb and Europe, when they meet with Italian employers’ association Confindustria in Rome on February 22.
