Day: 8 July 2018

Monaco Life publisher Eric Brundage interviewed Lionel Le Maux, CEO of Aqua Asset Management, founder and co-producer of the Monaco Transition Forum, held on June 26, 2018.

“I am a convinced investor in sustainable businesses since 1999, having developed this activity through the 21st Century until today, advising private investors, targeted entrepreneurs and family-led investors to invest in sustainable clean equities and industries.

“I have been working with products such as wind-produced energy, biogas and biomass, and especially, in the past seven or eight years, with solar and wind industries.

“To give an example of a company present at the Forum: Biogas, with Evergaz company, is a good example of a business opportunity with exponential growth within a 10 years turnover.

“Today, 85 per cent of my company business is done with family investors.

“One of the great missions of transition management is to look for companies who really want a transition from one world to another, and helping them to achieve their own transition.

“After some years, I eventually started a more formal company: Aqua Asset Management. The name of the company is from a restaurant in Hong Kong, Aqua, where everything started – with the idea coming out of a group formed of some of my partners and myself.

“We decided to focus on clean equities with two convictions:

“First, that we were living with sustainability and climate transition currently – the equivalent turning point that was the internet revolution 10 or 15 years ago.

“If I try to explain that, I would say that, nowadays, all the enterprises, governments and individuals in the world need to have internet integrated in their lives in order to work and produce. Internet started to expand In the world around 2000 and, 18 years later, no companies can be sustainable without a digital strategy.

“Well, we think that we are facing the same turning point today concerning the clean industries and clean equities. It goes with the new generations. They are already thinking in terms of ‘how clean is that company, that country or that equity’.

“Five or seven years ago, sustainability was just a communication issue in seminars. People wanted to appear like ‘green companies’.

“Today, mobility, building, chemicals, agriculture, basically all economic sectors are affected by this transition. Today we want Chief Sustainability Officers to appear in enterprises.

“It will now go from something ‘nice to have’ to ‘must have’. Because we believe that we are dealing now with a new ‘Environmental People Generation’.

“The Second conviction is to pinpoint the similarities and to gather people for this particular event from different origins: civil society, entrepreneurs, investment dedicated companies, big events organisers and startups.

“To protect the ecosystem, we have to involve a lot of different actors from different horizons to accelerate the transition.

“We must keep in mind that this is a ‘capitalistic transition’, replacing one world for another. To illustrate this, I like using the image of young people investing in buying a house instead of paying rent. It is the same idea with promoting clean energies. So, this event is first and foremost educational. It is possible to imagine adding clean equity to this event in the years to come.”

Why Monaco?

“Because one of our investors proposed to bring the event to Monaco, putting us in contact with Prince Albert II Foundation’s officials. Then, Mr Richard Attias accepted to be the organiser of the Forum.

“We chose Monaco for being a special place in the world, with a sovereign highly interested in promoting sustainable transition, and where decisions are quicker and easier to achieve.

“We have more than 500 participants this year, with 50 speakers coming from all around the world.

“Just today, HSH Prince Albert II and Paris Mayor Mrs Anne Hidalgo announced that the next Olympic Games in Paris, in 2024, are going to be clean and green. They signed a unique and global partnership on sustainability for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“For the moment, this Forum is held once a year here in Monaco and will stay based in the Principality. Setting other small local forums, on a specific subject, in other cities could be interesting but it is still under discussion.”

Nearly 300 players from across the Principality’s economic spectrum came together on Monday, July 2, at the Monte-Carlo Beach to discuss business opportunities at a BtoB session followed by a networking cocktail. The commission working on job placements for graduates (Commission d’Insertion des Diplômés) and the Energy Transition Mission were also present, there to make contacts with entrepreneurs.

It is the third time a BtoB session has opened the MEB Members’ Rendezvous, and again proved a great success: 98 people from 60 entities and 14 business sectors took part in 62 meetings, all targeted interviews of 10 minutes for maximum effectiveness.

The cocktail was held around the legendary Monte-Carlo Beach pool. Among public figures present were Stéphane Valeri, National Council President, and Secretary of State Jacques Boisson, fulfilling one of the MEB’s missions as a force for discussion between institutions and the men and women driving Monaco’s economy.

Another bridge, the Monaco Government’s Energy Transition Mission, had a stand to raise awareness of its goals. The team in charge of the National Pact on Energy Transition aims to mobilise the Monegasque community to achieve national greenhouse gas emission reduction targets set by HSH Prince Albert. More than 20 signed up to the Pact at the meeting.

Also present was Muriel Bubbio, in charge of fostering work placements for graduates and for whom it was an excellent opportunity to meet so many entrepreneurs. For the MEB, its task is vital. Its networks provide excellent opportunities both for young graduates and also those with experience who are abroad and want to return to their country.

In his welcome speech, Chairman Michel Dotta highlighted the role being played by the MEB in the digital transition taking place. This has gained momentum since the arrival of Frédéric Genta, the inter-ministerial Chief Digital Officer in charge of the Principality’s transition.

Lastly, Michel Dotta presented the highlights for the second half of 2018:
July 10: H.E. Thiep Nguyen, Vietnam’s Ambassador to France and Monaco will present his country’s advantages at an Ambassador’s Lunch. The MEB is accompanying an official visit by HSH Prince Albert to this country of 100 million inhabitants, from November 5-9.

September 4 to 8: another Trade Mission, this one to Beijing in China, when HSH the Sovereign Prince will inaugurate the exhibition, Princes and Princesses of Monaco, organised by the Grimaldi Forum in the Forbidden City.

Finally, after the summer holidays, another Members’ Rendezvous (September 17) and a talk on September 19 by Jean-Pierre Petit, President of macro-economics and investment strategy research firm, Cahiers Verts de l’Économie. As always there is one goal: to foster and promote Monaco’s dynamic economy by helping companies grow their businesses and attracting new investors.

In the presence of HSH Prince Albert, France handed over the chairmanship of the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) to Monaco, Australia and Indonesia, during a ceremony at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris on Wednesday, July 4, 2018.

In his address, HE the Sovereign Prince recalled the great responsibility of human societies whose development and short-term focus threatens the world’s coral reefs.

Monaco, during this co-presidency, will focus on the reinforcement of the political tools needed for the management and preservation of the reefs and on public mobilisation and new financial capabilities to counter the threats.

HE Mr Bernard Fautrier, Vice-President of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, took part in a session devoted to the financing of international commitments on the reefs.

The co-chairmanship of ICRI until 2020 is recognition of Monaco’s concern with the problem and its expertise. The Scientific Centre of Monaco has been wholeheartedly supported by the Prince’s Government, the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, and by the Coral Reef Life Declaration, made in October 2017 by the Sovereign and His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.

Mr Patrice Cellario, Minister of the Interior, and Mrs Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol, signed an agreement on July 4, 2018, extending cooperation between the Principality and the European Agency in all areas of Europol’s remit, including fighting terrorism, cybercrime, organised crime, drug trafficking, money laundering and human trafficking.

The Minister of the Interior visited Europol Headquarters in The Hague (Netherlands), with a delegation composed of the Director of Public Security, Richard Marangoni, and the Commissioners.

This visit helped to consolidate and deepen the links established on the basis of a first agreement signed in 2011. Since then, Europol has considerably developed its strategic and operational capabilities as well as its coordination.

Europol provides support for nearly 40,000 investigations annually. The visit also allowed for discussions with the operational managers of the European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) and Financial Intelligence Units (FIU), in charge of the fight against terrorism and money laundering.

Prospects for cooperation in the field of cybercrime were also discussed in order to strengthen the investigative capacity of the Monaco police service in the face of this type of crime.