Year: 2017

EU: December 15 is deadline for Tobruk parliament to amend Libya’s political agreement

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The European Union (EU) and some other major European countries have set mid-December as a deadline for the Libyan eastern-based parliament to amend the political agreement on ending the country’s political crises, a parliament member said. “We were informed by the president of a political bloc in the parliament that the EU and some other major European countries have informed him that parliament members must amend the political agreement because it is the only option to end the division between the Libyan parties, and that no alternative will be allowed…

EIB Finances New Suburban Network In Tunis

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With this new financing with the Republic of Tunisia and the Tunisian National Railways Company (SNCFT), the European Investment Bank (EIB) is strengthening its support for the development of efficient and sustainable urban transport infrastructure accessible to Tunisians living in the country. More than 15,600 jobs will be created during the development of the railway project which will provide the city of Tunis with a new 17km rapid transit system with lines D and E. HE Mr Zied Ladhari, Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation (MDICI) and Ms Flavia…

Cyprus smashes record for tourist arrivals in 2017

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Cyprus has smashed its record for annual tourist arrivals with two months to spare, with the total reaching 3.4 million at the end of October, official figures showed today. The eastern Mediterranean island has benefited from its reputation as a regional safe haven as unrest has hit the tourism sectors of its traditional competitors Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey. Arrivals in the first 10 months already comfortably exceeded the record 3.18 million registered in the whole of 2016. Cyprus has benefited from a boom in visitors from its largest market, Britain…

Migrant crisis: Europe should stop using Libya as a dumping ground

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With no central government and its own crises, Libya is ill-equipped to deal with an influx of returned migrants requiring shelter Although it is not a new problem, the issue of migration has accelerated sharply in the past five years, and migration from mainly sub-Saharan African countries to Europe across Libya can be traced back to the year 2000. Libya is not the only route for migration, with Morocco and Tunisia also used to a much lesser extent. The migrants come from many countries such as Nigeria, Gambia, Mali, Senegal,…

Libyan Higher Council of State to consider early elections in case of political deal failure

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Abdurrahman Swehli, the head of Libya’s Higher Council of State, said Thursday that the council will next week discuss the possibility of holding early elections within six months if the country’s political agreement fails. Swehli made the remarks during a meeting with Bettina Muscheidt, EU’s ambassador to Libya, in Tripoli, where the pair discussed the latest political and security developments in Libya. “The Council will discuss a proposal to hold early elections within six months, overseen by a small caretaker government of technocrats, should the negotiations for amending the UN-sponsored…

Tunisia: Ayari confirms return of growth, unveils major project

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Governor of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT), Chedly Ayari, announced a slight improvement in key economic indicators; even the beginnings of an economic recovery. “The trend is positive and things are improving … this will be reflected in the figures that we will publish soon,” Ayari told reporters, on the sidelines of the Entrepreneurship Forum held on Thursday, November 16, 2017, on the initiative of the Arab Institute of Business Managers (IACE). He pointed out that the Central Bank is stepping up efforts to avoid a slippage in the…

Beyond Transactional Deals: Building Lasting Migration Partnerships in the Mediterranean

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As maritime arrivals to Europe rose sharply in 2015 and 2016, European policymakers renewed their focus on building partnerships with origin and transit countries in North Africa in an effort to bring Mediterranean crossings under control. Though hardly new—some such partnerships stretch back decades—these efforts have taken on new urgency amid heightened migration to Europe by asylum seekers and migrants. This report examines two prominent examples of bilateral cooperation on migration management in the region: the partnerships that have emerged between Spain and Morocco, and between Italy and Tunisia. Both…

More than a million Libyans have visited Tunisia this year

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ver a million Libyans have visited Tunisia in the first ten months of the year, for health, educational, political and personal safety reasons or just to have a break from the violence. Tourism minister Salma Loumi said today that the 1,400,000 figure for Libyans who had come so far in 2017 represented an increase of some 17 percent over the same period last year. The Libya number fits into an overall visitor growth so far this year of almost a quarter in foreign arrivals which have reached six million. Tourism,…

Chinese market significant for reviving Tunisian tourism: official

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Chinese tourist market would be a significant factor to revive Tunisian tourism industry, Tunisian Minister of Tourism said Thursday during a session of parliamentary hearing. Salma Elloumi, Tunisian Minister of Tourism, said Tunisia received around 16,000 Chinese tourists until Nov. 10 this year, an increase of 190 percent compared with the same period last year. “While in 2016, the total number of Chinese tourists in Tunisia only reached around 7,300. The data shows a significant increase of Chinese emerging market. China is known as the largest emitter of tourists abroad,…

EBRD and FAO boost Tunisian olive oil

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Using innovation and technology to transform Tunisia’s olive oil industry was the focus of a high-level conference today in the country’s capital, Tunis. The event, organised by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), drew around 80 industry players from Tunisia, Morocco and Europe to discuss the latest trends and advances in the field, according to the EBRD. Tunisia is one of the world’s top olive oil-producing countries, with average annual exports nearing US$ 0.5 billion over a…