The Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation (APII) in partnership with the French international technical cooperation agency «Expertise France», organized, Wednesday in Sousse, the 1st Regional Conference on Crowdfunding . The 2nd conference is scheduled for next September 2024 in Tozeur. The conference, which was attended by government officials and experts, aims to disseminate the culture of crowdfunding and better identify it as a funding mechanism in the governorates of Monastir, Mahdia and Kairouan. At the opening of the conference, Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Fatma Thabet Chiboub, underlined that crowdfunding is based on raising funds from the public, through platforms dedicated to this purpose in order to fund projects or companies, by making investments in transferable securities or by credits or donations. She added that this funding mechanism is a financial innovation to fund projects, by mobilizing individual savings through online platforms. This mechanism seeks to chang e the way projects are funded, by creating a direct and transparent link between project owners and citizens. Crowdfunding makes it possible to finance startups as well as small and medium-sized businesses in its various stages. According to the minister, crowdfunding is one of the ways of mobilizing financial resources allowing Tunisian expatriates to contribute to the development process in Tunisia by launching investments in the productive economy. APII CEO Omar Bouzouada told TAP that crowdfunding represents an innovative way of funding, through the participation of individuals and other organizations, via online platforms. Bouzouada stressed that crowdfunding will be subject to rigorous control, through three structures, namely, the BCT for credits, microfinance associations, with regard to donations and the Financial Market Council (CMF), for capital participation. He affirmed that this mechanism targets young people wishing to launch innovative projects whose value does not exceed TND 2 million, a dding that individual participations do not exceed TND 20,000 for each participant. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse