Amman, JORDAN – H.E. Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh reconfirmed his strong commitment to achieve the goals of La Verticale Africa-Med-Europa (AME) Foundation as its Chair.
La Verticale AME is in charge of supporting economic and political transitions in Africa and promoting regional integration between African, Mediterranean and European (AME) spaces. It is an independent common space for positive dialogue and needs-driven joint project development, based on the overarching aim of making an integrated AME macro-region with co-production, shorter value chains and shared growth a reality.
The foundation is privileged to have Jean-Claude Juncker and Mahamadou Issoufou as its honorary co-Presidents, with former French Minister Elisabeth Guigou leading as its President.
As well as Chair of the Foundation, Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh also leads the AME Council of Business Leaders, a fundamental pillar and driving force of La Verticale AME. This is composed of business representatives of companies operating or willing to relocate value chains in the AME space, increasingly aware of their strategic role in social, environmental and geo-economic terms.
The first AME Council of Business Leaders meeting chaired by Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh took place on 3rd December 2020 and saw the participation of over 20 companies’ managers from the AME region. They enthusiastically welcomed this as an innovative platform to freely exchange on shared interests, and to elaborate and implement joint needs-based initiatives that ultimately serve the purpose of integrating the two continents across the Mediterranean.
Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh is set to increasingly strengthen the business dimension of the Foundation, wishing to impulse a greater entrepreneurial strategy within La Verticale AME and to put businesses at the forefront of the Foundation’s strategy, leadership and action.
Given its extensive experience with digitalization, education and digital learning, TAG Global is promoting a proposal for the establishment of a joint Africa-Med-Europe digital learning initiative, which will be developed through a dedicated working group related to the area of skills development for AME industrialization and digitalization.
About La Verticale AME
La Verticale AME is a political project, which finds its origins in civil society and that is actively supported by several political leaders. Those who adhere to this project defend the same conviction: Europe and Africa, across the Mediterranean, share challenges and a common destiny. It is therefore necessary to create jointly a permanent, independent and forward-looking instrument, shared between South and North, in order to prepare for our common future and to propose concrete projects and actions.
The Foundation, which was formally established in April 2019 under Belgian law, was co-founded by TAG Group and the Mediterranean World Economic Foresight Institute (IPEMED), based on a concept developed by Jean-Louis Guigou concerning the North-South regionalization of the international economy. Its funding will come from both companies and public institutions. Jean-Claude Junker, former President of the European Commission, and Issoufou Mahamadou, former President of Niger, are the Honorary co-Presidents.
About TAG.Global
Established in 1972, TAG.Global is an international organization, employing over 2,000 professionals in various fields of expertise and it operates from over 110 offices across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, North America and the Far East. It is one of the largest Pan-Arab professional groups offering diversified yet interrelated services in accordance with the highest international standards, with an expansion strategy that aims to address the needs of both the organization’s growing list of clients and to provide new services to its existing clientele.
