{"id":55805,"date":"2016-11-30T19:59:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T21:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/escaesco.com.br\/lab\/anba\/tunisian-conference-drives-nearly-usd-15-bn-in-investment\/"},"modified":"2019-06-30T12:49:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-30T15:49:56","slug":"tunisian-conference-drives-nearly-usd-15-bn-in-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/tunisian-conference-drives-nearly-usd-15-bn-in-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Tunisian conference drives nearly USD 15 bn in investment"},"content":{"rendered":"

São Paulo – Investments amounting to roughly TND 34 billion (USD 14.7 billion) were announced during the international conference Tunisia 2020, held over the past two days in the national capital Tunis, prime minister Youssef Chahed said this Wednesday (30) at the event’s closing. The information was made public by news agency Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP)<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The event was attended by heads of state and government from several countries, business executives and delegates from international organizations. The goal was to present Tunisia’s economic development plan spanning 2016 to 2020 and bringing resources into a number of projects. <\/p>\n

“Tunisia is on the right track and will remain a competitive investment target,” TAP<\/em> quoted Chahed as saying. “The real work starts now. Signing on to conventions or agreements is not enough. We must speed up the process so these projects will see the light of day and these promises come true,” he said.<\/p>\n

Announcements included deals with international and regional financial institutions, among them a USD 1.5 billion loan from the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development (AFESD) for infrastructure projects, to be rolled out over five years, at 2.5% per annum interest and a 30-year repayment term. AFESD also pledged to donate USD 1 million for water supply investment in southern Tunisia. <\/p>\n

Tunisia’s government and the World Bank signed a technical cooperation protocol for public-private partnerships. “The new partnership strategy between Tunisia and the World Bank for 2016 to 2020 provides for USD 1 billion in financing each year, plus a USD 300 million contribution from the International Finance Corporation (a World Bank arm),” said the World Bank’s vice president for the Middle East and North Africa, Hafez Ghanem.<\/p>\n

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will allocate at least EUR 650 million to Tunisia in the next five years, to support the private sector and to fund infrastructure and energy projects. <\/p>\n

The European Investment Bank (EIB) signed several financial deals for projects including roads, Mediterranean coastal water quality preservation, electric power distribution and development of 4G mobile networks, plus funds earmarked for the Central Bank of Tunisia. EIB president Werner Hoyer declared that financial support to the Arab country is set to reach EUR 2.5 billion euros by 2020.<\/p>\n

Companies <\/strong><\/p>\n

Tunisia’s oil company Etap struck a deal with Italy’s hydrocarbons agency to build a solar power station in the province of Tatouine, in the Oued Zar area, for EUR 10 million.<\/p>\n

In tourism, Qatar’s Al Majida company entered into an agreement with the Tunisian Ministry of Tourism to set up a La Cigale five-star hotel in Gammarth, a suburb north of Tunis, for USD 200 million. The project should create 1,500 jobs. And the Mövenpick hotel chain announced a third unit in the country for 2017.<\/p>\n

In technology, Tunisia and Microsoft will build an online platform for the Tunisian investment authority, and France’s DecoD announced 400 new jobs in the country as of January 2017. The company specializes in the integration of 3D technology into content production. <\/p>\n

The French rail transportation company Alstom expressed interest in several projects, TAP<\/em> said, including the building of a metro system in the city of Sfax. “There are several projects in the 2016-2020 plan that add up to hundreds of millions of euros and which we could be a part of,” Alstom’s senior VP for Public Relations Philippe Delleur told TAP<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Governments <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Canadian government announced that it will provide USD 24 million to Tunisia, in addition to USD 4 million in previously agreed investments, to promote women’s rights, professional training and entrepreneurship. Switzerland’s government, in turn, said it will supply Tunisia with TND 250 million until 2020 to foster jobs creation for young people and to develop an professional training system. <\/p>\n

The Saudi Fund for Development has granted Tunisia a USD 700 million loan at 2% interest, with repayment due in 20 years, for development projects and support to exports. It also announced a TND 100 million grant to build a regional hospital and restore the Okba Ibn Nafaa mosque and the medina (old town) in Kairouan, a Tunisian city with a great historical and religious heritage. <\/p>\n

Qatar will provide USD 250 million to Tunisia to strengthen the country’s economy and development. “The best, safest way to fight extremism and violence is through prevention, said the Qatari emir Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, according to TAP<\/em>. Recent terror attacks ni Tunisia dealt a severe blow to tourism, a major source of revenue for the country. <\/p>\n

The Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) offered USD 500 million in credit over a five-year period for regional development. Unequal regional development across Tunisia is another serious issue the country needs to grapple with. <\/p>\n

*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fethi Belaidi\/AFP<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Such is the total amount of loans, grants and investments announced at Tunisia 2020, an event held over the past two days in Tunis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2316,"featured_media":187811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-55805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy"},"wps_subtitle":"Such is the total amount of loans, grants and investments announced at Tunisia 2020, an event held over the past two days in Tunis.","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/187811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}