Promoting investment among the countries of the southern Mediterranean – The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean is a regional fisheries management organization. With 22 member countries & the EU, its main objective is to ensure the conservation and the sustainable use of living marine resources as well as the sustainable development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea.
GFCM organizes and supports outstanding training programs that raise the capabilities of scientific and technical cadres and workers in the fisheries sector, within the framework of promoting investment among the countries of the southern Mediterranean, the FAO General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean GFCM held workshops in Alexandria, Egypt, under the title “promoting Responsible Investment among the countries of the southern Mediterranean” During the 17th and 18th of May 2023.
The GFCM is working together with its partners to build a sector that openly attracts responsible investments, to identify the principles behind Responsible Investment and adapt them to the aquaculture sector. The definition of these principles will allow financial organizations and institutions to better design and provide targeted financing to the sector and attract private capital to drive sustainable growth of aquaculture in the region.
Events of the first day
The first day included some presentations provided by several experts from GFCM, which dealt with the Blue transformation, the future vision of the sector, as well as the principle of responsible investment in fish farming, in addition to reviewing the experiences of the various countries participating in the workshop for their experience in the fish farming sector, presenting its advantages, and the challenges faced by this sector. The discussions also included the participation of various local and international funding agencies to present proposals on how to benefit from grants and financing loans to promote the sector locally, regionally and globally, and achieve the desired return from it.
The second day
The participating parties were divided into working groups to develop environmental, social and administrative policies, in order to promote responsible investment in various countries, participants from the southern Mediterranean countries at the Responsible Investment Conference for the southern Mediterranean countries visited the kilo site 21 to learn about the activities of the marine fish farming development project in Egypt MADE II and discuss the possibility of cooperation between the southern Mediterranean countries with the project and benefit from its technical components in the fields of training on marine fish farming and spawning.
The workshops attended by 40 participants from the sectors in various member countries of the authority, as well as foreign and local funding agencies. The GFCM provided guidance at the farm level to help farmers attract responsible investments to their enterprises.
The GFCM strategy works on providing technical consultations related to responsible investment in the sector, indicators that achieve sustainability of resources, and reaching policies that would promote the concept of responsible investment in fish farming with a focus on small-scale farmers, as well as the importance of cooperation between stakeholders in the member countries of the authority, in order to develop an administrative regulatory framework that creates a sustainable, productive, economically profitable, and globally competitive sector.
Promoting investment among the countries of the southern Mediterranean
