On Wednesday, December 14, 2022, the first Policy Awareness Event of the ReSt@rts international cooperation project led by the Arab Italian Cooperation Chamber was held in Sfax, Tunisia. During the conference, the establishment of the ReSt@rts International Committee, founded by the project partners, was announced, which aims to facilitate access to credit for young entrepreneurs in Mediterranean countries, and offer support through microfinance tools to non-bankable entities. In addition, partners presented the newly-established online platform, which will facilitate the interaction between supply and demand for financial services and support for business needs.
With an ethical approach inspired by principles of finance solidarity and public-private collaboration, it is intended to bring support to generally non-bankable entities (young people and women) through providing tools of microfinance and different training programmes, utilizing and systematize the experiences gained by partner organizations from previous ENI CBC Med projects such as MEDSt@rts, and GIMED, which is active in the development of innovative solutions to support young aspiring entrepreneurs to create new green businesses.

The event, organized by the Sfax Chamber of Commerce and Industry, one of the partners in the ReSt@rts project, was attended by representatives of the other partner organizations from 6 different countries and numerous representatives of organizations active in microfinance and entrepreneurship support. The main objective of the ReSt@rts project is to promote access to finance for women, youth and vulnerable groups in the Mediterranean basin.