Year: 2017

Tunisia: Debt of households exceeds 20 billion dinars in 2016

BGMN

The latest report of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) highlights the enormous debt burden of Tunisian households. Indeed, the total indebtedness of individuals to the banking sector totaled 20.414 billion dinars in 2016 against 18.556 billion the previous year, up 10% against 5.7% in 2015. This acceleration has mainly affected housing development credits, whose rate of growth has risen by 8 percentage points and, to a lesser extent, housing loans which saw their rate of growth accelerate by 1.5 percentage points. Furthermore, the BCT notes that the pace of…

TAP and Andalou agency ink cooperation agreement

BGMN

Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) news agency and Anadolu Agency signed on Friday a cooperation agreement. The agreement was signed by TAP CEO Lotfi Arfaoui and Anadolu Agency’s Deputy Director-General Mustafa Ozkaya and at a ceremony held at TAP headquarters in Tunis. The cooperation agreement covers the areas of exchanging news through various media (text, image, video, graphics or infography). The agreement also provides for developing exchanges of expertise, press and technical delegations in addition to boosting exchange of media contents between the two agencies in various fields and news bulletins…

Zuwara, the Libyan city working to stop migrant smuggling

BGMN

“If we want to rebuild the Libyan state, we need to start with protecting human dignity,” said Badis Halab, a 23-year-old member of the At-Wellol Movement (People of Zuwara) in Zuwara, an Amazigh majority port city in northwestern Libya. “So even when we have to struggle for our own life in the Libyan chaos, we cannot ignore refugees and migrants who continue to die at sea in front of our shores,” added Badis. At-Wellol and Azref (Rights), another civil society movement, are made up of around 30 members, both men and women aged between 20…

Tourism up 29% in Tunisia

BGMN

The number of tourists who visited Tunisia from January to the end of June has increased by 29.3 per cent compared to the same period last year, official data shows. According to data compiled by the Tunisian ministries of interior and tourism, more than 2.5 million tourists visited Tunisia in the first six months of the year. Moez Al-Harizi of the Information Office of the Ministry of Tourism said more than 202,000 French tourists visited Tunisia. “Despite travel restrictions imposed by Britain, more than 11,000 British tourists visited Tunisia in…

In Tunisia, a sense of change infuses the air

BGMN

Tunisia is offering real-time test results on the limits of popular patience, how expectations react with reality and the conditions that must trigger government action Summer in the Maghreb is generally thought to be a time when indolence finds respectability. Not so in Tunisia this year. The soaring temperatures are matched by a sudden surge of active hope that a long season of ill-luck may be turning. Foreign tourists are returning in greater numbers after Tunisia marked the second anniversary of the June 26 terrorist attack on the holiday beach…

E.U. gives Italy $40m extra cash to deal with illegal migrant influx

BGMN

The EU executive offered Italy more funding on Tuesday to help deal with Mediterranean migrants and said private rescue boats working off Libya should review their operations to avoid encouraging people to take to sea. The European Commission announced 35 million euros ($40 million) in extra cash for Rome in response to Italian demands that its neighbours share more of the burden of handling thousands of people coming by boat every week. It also set out a list of other measures for EU ministers to discuss on Thursday. Among the…

New UN report encourages African countries to harness growing tourism sector

BGMN

African governments should make it easier and safer for Africans to travel within the continent, the United Nations said in a new report released today, noting that tourism demand there is increasingly driven by Africans themselves. “Tourism is a dynamic sector with phenomenal potential in Africa. Properly managed it can contribute immensely to diversification and inclusion for vulnerable communities,” said Mukhisa Kituyi, Secretary-General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The agency’s “Economic Development in Africa Report 2017 focuses on tourism for transformative and inclusive growth. Chantal Line Carpentier,…

FAO Director-General urges countries to recognize the vital role of rural women in freeing the world from hunger and poverty

BGMN

Rural women and girls are key agents of change to free the world from hunger and extreme poverty, said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva today at a special side-event on gender equality and women’s empowerment on the sidelines of the FAO’s Conference. “Their role goes beyond agricultural production and extends throughout the food system but, as we all know, rural women continue to face multiple constraints,” he said, noting that they have less access to productive resources and employment opportunities. He also stressed that women are more affected by the consequences of…

Tunisia: CLERPREM plans to create 80 new jobs in 2017

BGMN

The CLERPREM group is confident in the positive investment climate in Tunisia and plans to extend its subsidiary in Menzel Jemil (governorate of Bizerte). Supplier of accessories for cars and motorcycles, the company CLERPREM Tunisie also plans to create 80 new jobs during the second half of 2017, CEO of the Group David Baratti said after a meeting with the Governor of Bizerte on Tuesday. He added that the company, which currently employs 420 people, plans to increase the number of its staff to 650 after the planned extension works.…

Tourism revenue in Africa to reach $121 billion in 2026

BGMN

Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt take in lion’s share of continent’s tourism revenue The tourism sector’s contribution to GDP in Africa is forecast to increase to $121 billion in 2026, according to the 2017 Economic Development in Africa Report released Wednesday by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report entitled “Tourism for Transformative and Inclusive Growth” said the sector’s contribution to GDP in 2016 had amounted to $73 billion. “Tourism’s total contribution to employment in 2011-2014 generated more than 21 million jobs, or roughly one out of 14…