Murcia on Tuesday will become the hub of cooperative Europe, Africa and Asia. Nelva Hotel will host the conference 'The Actor Cooperative Enterprise Social Economy and Social Development in the Mediterranean, an initiative of the employer Cepes and members of the Euro-Mediterranean EconomicSocial (ESMED), with the support of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECI) and the collaboration of the regional government of Murcia and University Ucomur.
The objective of the meeting, said Juan Antonio Pedroza, president of Cepes and Ucomur, is to show "the importance of cooperatives in the economic and social development of the Mediterranean", using the UN declaration of 2012 as International Year of Cooperatives. Also seek to identify prioritiesworking to support the development of these businesses in the area.
The conference will bring together delegations from eight countries cooperatives of the Southern Mediterranean (Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestinian Territories, Tunisia and Turkey), along with representatives from Spain, Portugal, Italy and the European Union.
ESMED Network is a coordination platform that aims to increase and promote the visibility of social economy enterprises to governments and institutions responsible for the Union for the Mediterranean, the European Union and other civil society actors. Carlos Lozano, coordinator of international relationsCEPES stresses that all the seven countries that are part of this network, Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Morocco, Portugal and Tunisia, totaling more than 410,000 social economy enterprises, which generate 6.2 million jobs, more 558 million euros in turnover and associated with 134 million people.
According to statistics cited by the employer, there are a total of 200,217 cooperatives between Europe (including Turkey) and southern Mediterranean countries, which generate jobs and associated 6,294,630 136,040,880 people.
In the event include representatives from organizations representing cooperatives and social economy of the countries in this area and the EU as well as those responsible for public administration responsible for the development and promotion of social economy organizations and representatives from business, labor and ofcivil society in the countries of the Euro-Mediterranean.
The opening ceremony is payable by the president of the Community, Ramón Luis Valcárcel, from 9.30 am, accompanied by the project director of finance and business development of the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM), Fernando de la Fuente; the rector of the University of Murcia, Jose Antonio Cobacho, and JohnAntonio Pedroza. Also expected to attend throughout the day from a wide representation of the Regional Assembly, the advisers of Agriculture and Water Economy, and Culture and Tourism, Antonio Cerda, Juan Bernal and Pedro Alberto Cruz, respectively, and as more than 120 representatives of the social economy and national Murcia
The conference will develop proposals to strengthen policies on economic and social cooperation among the countries of northern and southern Mediterranean. This is done with the participation of the International Labour Organization (ILO), international commitment by cooperatives as an actor for employmentandbe presented in Murcia key to its development in the Arab world. Furthermore, the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM), an international organization that brings together the 27 States of the European Union and 16 southern Mediterranean countries will present their business development initiatives in this region of the world and how cooperatives are part of theseinitiatives.
The rest of conferences and roundtables to be held throughout the day will reveal the keys to promoting business development of cooperatives in the Mediterranean, strengthen their representative organizations and implementing development policies, taking as one of the experiences program referencesupport the social economy of the Community of Murcia.
The closing, scheduled for 17 hours, will feature the CEO of Self-Employment, Social Economy and Social Responsibility of Enterprises of the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, Miguel Angel Garcia, and the Minister of Education, Training and Employment, Sotoca Constantine, along with Juan Antonio Pedroza.
