(by Severine Kittler) (ANSAmed) - MARSEILLE - From aromatic plants and medicines to postal services, from biotechnology to the textile industry, from social housing to eco-tourism: there are 25 niche markets with strong development potential in the Mediterranean countries identified by the Invest in Med programme presented today in Marseille during Mediterranean Economy Week. These new markets, as yet underdeveloped overall in the countries in the region, and which the absence of is penalizing the growth of 15 priority sectors selected by Invest in Med for its launch in April 2008, to orient investments in nine countries (Algeria, Palestine, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia). In a year and a half of the programme, co financed by the European Commission and managed by Anima Investment Network, spent five of the 12 million euros available for the three year period 2008-2011 in the sectors agro-industrial, textiles, information technology and telecommunications, water and waste management, renewal energy sources and the pharmaceutical industry. And it is exactly during the realization of the projects, in close contact with the entrepreneurial reality, particularly locally, in the countries, that the lack of some sub-sectors was discovered, and which appear essential for the complete development of the various sectors. Anima decided therefore to investigate deeper, contacting the foreign investors active in the Med countries and those responsible for the 36 initiatives financed by Invest in Med, and so identified the 25 niche markets that could, if developed in the various countries, give a boost to the economic future of the region. The niches include environmental studies (Algeria, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon); wind power (Morocco, Egypt, Turkey); sustainable building (Morocco with Tanger Med, Syria, Lebanon, Tunisia); the treatment of special waste (Jordan, Egypt); eco-tourism and film tourism (Turkey with the Noor television series which has brought tourists to Istanbul, or even Ouarzazate, nicknamed Morocco's Hollywood); the textile industry producing fibre for technical or medical use (already developed in Jordan and Israel); and veterinary pharmaceutical products (Israel). Invest in Med has the markets' pulse: the regions' economic reality, the legislative outlook, the paths to take, contacts, tries to furnish business and socio-economic entities with all the useful information to be able to act quickly and invest where there is a need. ''We have a very strong impact'', an army made up of more than 400 private and public entities and organism in all the Mediterranean countries, even on a regional level'', explained Invest in Med director Emmanuel Noutary, who believes that ''this patrimony should not be lost''. A statement made during the discussion on the creation of the next European-Mediterranean agency for SMEs assigned to Italy and Spain as part of the Union of the Mediterranean. Some, it emerging during the round table discussion organized today by Medalliance in Marseille, are thinking of a centralized organisation, while others think it would be better to confederate all the existing organisms in Marseille, Milan, Barcelona, in the new agency to take advantage of their experience. ''The important thing is not the agency, but what it does'', stressed Julien Aubert, from UPM. ''It's not the label, but what is in the bottle'', echoed Philippe de Fontaine Vive, vice president of the European Investment Bank, adding, ''we have to do thing in the best way, because one thing is certain, the liquidity to invest in the Mediterranean is there''. (ANSAmed).