UfM Business Forum

18 June 2019, Cairo. In their UfM Ministerial Declaration of March 2018, the UfM Trade Ministers encouraged the organization of business-to-government and business-to-business meetings in the region, in order to include business organizations and operators in the definition and implementation of the trade and investment reform agenda in the Mediterranean. To this end, the Ministers expressed their wish to organize a UfM Business Forum.

The UfM in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), and also in partnership with the Association of Mediterranean Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ASCAME), will hold a Business Forum in Cairo, Egypt on 18 June 2019, under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Egypt and the participation of Ministers, other senior government representatives, the private sector, civil society and international organizations.

The 2019 UfM Business Forum will focus on two trade issues of paramount importance to the economic integration and development of the Mediterranean region; namely market access and e-commerce. The agenda of the UfM Business Forum will follow shortly.

The target audience for the two thematics (Market Access and E-commerce) is three-fold; first: the business community, second: the governments and the regulators, and third: the international cooperation and the role of regional and global governance (this one includes representatives of international organizations, trade negotiators, and individual experts). All this should allow for an exchange between businesses, governments and international community respectively.