European TEX-MED Clusters project launched in Tunisia

The project, funded under the European Neighborhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) Cross Border Cooperation (CBC) in the Mediterranean (MED) countries, also known as the ‘Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme’, was unveiled in Monastir by the TEX-MED project coordinator Susanna Leonelli.

The TEX-MED project would be undertaken in Monastir with the support of the Tunisian Technical Center of Textile (CETTEX), and the Competitiveness Pole of Monastir-El Fajja (Mfcpole), the two partners of the European initiative in the country.

At the presentation, Ms. Leonelli explained that the first part of the project is underway and would run till June 2014, and involves assessing the current situation of the textile and clothing sectors in the partner countries.

According to the TEX-MED official, a conference would be held in the Italian city of Florence during July 2015, which would bring together at least 150 companies from the partner countries which are working on a series of pilot projects that would be assessed by the TEX-MED officials.

Around eight Mediterranean regions, such as Tuscany in Italy, Catalonia in Spain, Thessaloniki in Greece, Monastir in Tunisia, Alexandria in Egypt, Bethlehem in Israel and Amman in Jordan, form part of this project.

The two-year project, ending in 2015, has a budget of €2 billion, of which €1.7 billion is funded by the ENPI CBC MED programme, whereas the remaining €300,000 would be financed by the eight project partners in the eight regions.

The TEX-MED Clusters project’s main objective is to increase the volume of links, partnerships and cooperation between the textile industries in the Mediterranean countries and create an integrated Mediterranean textile system.

Fibre2fashion News Desk - India