18 February 2008 - A consortium led by ECORYS is currently busy with their preparations organizing a large match-making event called Agro-Industry 2008, which will take place in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, from 6-8 May.

The EU-SADC Agro-Industry 2008 Sector Partnership Meeting (SPM) is a forum where promoters and entrepreneurs from the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region will present a carefully selected range of new and high quality business development projects in the agriculture, food and agri-related sectors to interested European and other international businesses.

EU businesses and other international firms will have the opportunity to meet in one place with potential agro-industry partners from all 14 countries of the SADC region. The main focus of Agro-Industry 2008 will be the facilitation of one-to-one business meetings between European and Southern African enterprises. This will encourage international financial, technical and commercial partnerships with the aim of developing the SME sector and increase employment in the 14 SADC based countries.

The Agro-Industry 2008 SPM Project team consists of 4 sub-teams, each with a distinct but integrated role in achieving success:

• SPI team (Sector Studies & Project Identification) will deliver a minimum of 100 carefully selected SADC project proposals and is responsible for drafting 14 sector studies (description of the agricultural sector for each SADC country).
• PEU team (Promotion in Europe & 3rd Countries) will recruit a minimum of 100 investors from Europe and third countries to the SPM.
• COL team is responsible for Communications, Organization & Logistics.
• CMQ team is responsible for Control, Monitoring & Quality.

These four teams will make Agro Industry 2008 a major success. For further information on Agro-Industry 2008 visit the official website at www.agro-ind2008.com, download the brochure or contact:

Agnes Janszen
T +31 10 453 8664
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