The CREACT4MED program, co-financed by the European Union, held its closing event in Barcelona, Spain, highlighting the project’s achievements in training over 400 individuals to establish businesses in the cultural and creative industries of Mediterranean and North African countries.
Additionally, 23 entrepreneurs have received direct funding in six different countries—Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Tunisia—and support for six business incubators or accelerators promoting regional cooperation, with a budget of nearly half a million euros.
Rym Ayadi, director of CREACT4MED and president of the Euro-Mediterranean Economists Association (EMEA), stated that the main conclusion drawn is that culture and creativity are pillars for economic and social transformation, as well as for the well-being of the region.
“I think it’s important to start building and investing in entrepreneurship in the cultural creative industries, so to make it an economy that is vibrant and that also allows specifically youth, women, and all segments of the population to develop their own activities, their own works,” she said in an interview with Agencia EFE.
Meanwhile, Maria Ruiz de Cossío, the project’s lead coordinator and EMEA member, highlighted that the networks they have created, both physical and virtual, have generated a community of more than 1,200 “creative minds” in the region.
She expressed pride in the connections between countries with “a rich cultural heritage” and especially in the “beautiful dialogue” between people from Morocco and Palestine or Jordan and Egypt.
The closing event of CREACT4MED, attended by EFE as a collaborating media outlet, was held at the Sant Pau Art Nouveau Site in the Catalan capital. It gathered more than 100 participants, including project partners and beneficiaries, financial agents, business development experts, and startups from international chambers of commerce.
Throughout the day, various members of EMEA, as the main partner, and the other coordinating partner, the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed), detailed the work done over the four years of the program. This included mapping the cultural and creative industry of each country, resulting in individualized reports with economic and social data.
Finally, CREACT4MED beneficiaries exchanged experiences in a cooperative working session about the development of their businesses and how the training programs they received helped them acquire necessary skills, manage their finances, and build a network of contacts. EFE
