The 12th edition of ECOMONDO,
International Trade Fair of Material & Energy
Recovery and Sustainable Development, took place in
Rimini, from 5th to 8th
November 2008.
At this edition of the Fair, and with the aim of
encouraging business partnerships and strengthening
economic and industrial relations between companies
operating in several developing countries and Italy,
UNIDO ITPO Italy, with the support of the Investment
Promotion Units in Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, and
Tunisia, coordinated and assisted a delegation of 15
foreign SMEs to over 150 business meetings.
With
over 64,500 attendees and more than 1,000 exhibiting
firms, ECOMONDO 2008 provided foreign companies with
a unique platform to forge partnerships, examine
potential joint-venture agreements, as well as see
the widest range of technical opportunities,
systems, equipment, and services for solving
complicated specific environmental problems.
To favour the establishment of positive and
effective business relations between Italian and
foreign companies, UNIDO ITPO Italy carried-out a
match-making exercise in response to the business
proposals/requests of the attendees. As a
consequence of these activities, business meetings
took place between companies from Italy and from
Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, and Jordan, under the
supervision of UNIDO staff and with the support of
professional interpreters.
Of about 15 participating foreign companies, some
engaged interesting business negotiations that are
currently being followed-up with Italian partners
regarding, in particular, E-waste recycling and the
production of various kinds of soap in the organic
cosmetics line.
Further, the Fair enabled some companies to explore
opportunities for future collaboration in the waste
water treatment and wind industries. The first one
involves Morocco and Italy in a waste water
treatment project, with an approximate investment of
€ 7,000,000, and the second one, joins two
enterprises for the production of a wind power
generator in Egypt and in Tunisia, using Italian
technology.
By exchanging experiences and best practice during
these meetings, a number of companies started some
negotiations, such as a Tunisian company that will
learn from an Italian counterpart new techniques to
measure and certify power efficiency in buildings in
return for exporting its eco-friendly building
materials. Another concrete example of the results
of these meetings is a Moroccan company that will be
able to switch from paper recycling to plastics
recycling, thanks to the transfer of know-how from
an Italian counterpart.
Finally, UNIDO ITPO Italy also obtained good results
from assisting foreign companies, mainly by helping
them to recognise their strengths and weaknesses and
then to act accordingly. Furthermore, ITPO Italy
persisted in cooperating and developing industrial
partnerships, and this bore fruit, as when ITPO
Italy finally found an Italian counterpart to an
Egyptian food company, a long-time client of ours,
which had been seeking a partner in catalyst
recycling.
