ICIA-STAMP Inovation Cluster
Since 2013, following the Success CADIC, COSME has provide d a European Cluster Collaboration Platform, where cluster and business networking organizations in different countries with proven bottom up cluster-building capability can join together to form an European Strategic Cluster Partnership (ESCP).
The Italian and Greek transfer partners for CADIC: Confindustria Vibo Valentia , and the Mediterranean comunity have joined with two other cluster and business netwoking organizations (AcrossLimits, Malta) and Synthesis Centre, Cyprus) in the Eastern Mediiterranean region to form the STAMP (Sustainable Tourism- Ancient Mediterranean Ports ) ESCP.
The ICIA is an International partner in the STAMP (Sustainable tourism - Ancient mediterranean Ports) European Strategic Custer Partnership, and, in that context, is working jointly with the the Mediterranean Community to establish an ICIA-STAMP Innovation cluster on Sustainable tourism in China and the mediterranean region, developing and exploiting business innovations in maritime tourism, capitalising on the motif “Ancient Ports of the Maritime Silk Road”, offering tourism facilities and recreational, creative and cultural activities within the framework of sustainable tourism initiatives.
The membership of the Sustainable Tourism Innovation cluster comprises Innovative start-ups, and Small and Medium Enterprises, as well as research and knowledge dissemination organisations and not-for-profit organisations. The Cluster is designed to stimulate innovative activity by promoting sharing of facilities and exchange of knowledge and expertise and by contributing effectively to knowledge transfer, networking, information dissemination and collaboration among its members.
Maritime Silk Road
“Silk Road" is the name give to α historically famous trading route across Eurasia, through which the most influential goods freighted to the west from China were silk products, hence the name. Generally, the Silk Road refers to the land passage initiated by Zhang Qian, a special envoy to the Western Regions, starting from Xi’an, passing Gansu and Xinjiang Province in China to the Central and Western Asia and connecting all Mediterranean countries. This route is shown in red in the map above. In the latter half of the 19th century, the German geographer Richthofen named this route the “Silk Road“, which has been followed to this day.
The Maritime Silk Road refers to the route from each port in south China, such as Guangzhou to Southeast Asia, India, Arabia or even farther through heading west by boat or north through the red sea and overland transshipment to the Mediterranean, following the present day route of the Suez Canal. The maritime silk road crossed the Mediterranean sea from Suez/Alexandria in Egypt, via Greece and the the Italian Ionian sea ports to Venice in Lombardy (northern Italy). This route is shown in blue in the map above.
With the enhancement in navigation technology and accumulation of seafaring experience, coupled with the advantages of lower transportation cost and larger quantity of freight in marine trading, the Maritime Silk Road gradually replaced the Silk Road on land to become,the major passage for communication between the east and the west the period of the Song (960-1279) and Yuan dynasties (1271-1368).
See http://thediplomat.com/2014/05/chinas-new-silk-road-vision-revealed/