The Sixth Edition of Tech Days Takes Place from November 18 to 21 in Tunis and Sousse
The sixth edition of Tech Days is being held in Tunisia from November 18 to 21, with the aim of fostering connections between businesses and various actors in the economic and industrial chain within innovative clusters. Organized by the Confederation of Citizen Enterprises of Tunisia (Conect) in partnership with Anima Investment Network and the Euromed Clusters Forward (ECF) project, this sixth edition is taking place in Tunis and Sousse, with the central theme of "Building Euromed Digital Resilience". Dedicated largely to artificial intelligence, this edition brings together, according to the organizers, more than 80 clusters and foreign economic operators from 20 Mediterranean countries to discuss the challenges of digital transformation and digital sovereignty with their Tunisian counterparts.
Objective of the Event
This event is part of the "activation of Euromed value chains via interclustering" program, which aims to strengthen synergies, support innovation, promote economic integration, and encourage the development of concrete collaborations between European and Mediterranean industrial clusters.
Opening Ceremony
During the opening ceremony held in Tunis, Tarak Chérif, President of Anima Invest and Conect International, emphasized that "the economy of the Mena region must continue to move up the value chain to be able to attract foreign investment and be competitive in exports". "Clusters are by definition the networks that create innovation," he specified, highlighting the role that these platforms can play as a vector for developing business competitiveness.
Interest in Organizing Tech Days in Tunisia
Returning to the interest in organizing these Tech Days in Tunisia, T. Chérif affirmed that Tunisia "is well-placed in the region to organize these Tech Days, given that it has the most developed innovation ecosystem and the largest number of clusters in the Mena region". The President of Conect International also stressed that working together is a guarantee of sovereignty, particularly in the face of certain powers.
French Ambassador's Statement
Present at the opening of the conference, the French Ambassador to Tunisia, Anne Guéguen, declared that "the integration of regional value chains, digital technology, and artificial intelligence are sectors that are at the heart of the action of the French Embassy in Tunisia and I would even say of France's economic diplomacy in the region". "Regarding artificial intelligence, the Mediterranean has all the assets to be the cradle of new solutions to address the new challenges we face in common, whether it be climate change, water stress, pressure on the healthcare system, or the competitiveness of our industries," she emphasized, adding that "the Mediterranean must weigh in on global debates on artificial intelligence, whether in New York, Geneva, or specialized forums, and if it does not, other models will impose themselves on it and place it de facto in a situation of technological dependence and abandonment of digital sovereignty".
Conect President's Statement
Aslan Bejeb, President of Conect, highlighted the usefulness of working within a network and combining means and skills to gain competitiveness and visibility, particularly for SMEs. "As long as our economic fabric is composed essentially of SMEs, we must promote teamwork," he emphasized. "Since more than two decades, a fact has been imposed in the competitiveness strategies of companies: clusters, groups of companies, or poles of competitiveness have become one of the most effective levers of modern economic development," he recalled, adding that "these clusters constitute ecosystems that concentrate know-how, talents, infrastructure, researchers, companies, incubators, institutions, etc. and this creates a dynamic that no single actor could generate alone".
Tech Days Event
The Tech Days offer a privileged framework for organizing B2B meetings between clusters, companies, and innovation actors, in order to promote the emergence of Euro/Mediterranean cooperation, the organizers stress in a statement. The Tech Days networking event of the Euromed Clusters Forward project has been bringing together clusters and members for three years to facilitate international collaborations, the same source notes, recalling that "the Tech Days have already had five successful editions, testifying to the solidity and relevance of this cooperation model in the service of economic and technological development". These events have brought together an average of more than 250 participants from 31 Euromed countries, generating more than 600 B2B meetings and resulting in more than 300 registered opportunities and partnerships.
