Year: 2018

Tunisia’s water utility, SONEDE, has shared details of recently completed and future desalination projects, including groundwater and seawater plants. The utility is poised to open a 50,000 m3/d capacity seawater desalination plant at Djerba in 2018, at a cost of TND 180 million ($74 million). Two more seawater desalination plants, at Gabes, costing TND 200 million ($82 million), and Sfax, with a price tag of TND 900 million ($371 million) are in the planning stages. The details of the work were shared by SONEDE president and director general Mosbah Helali,…

Thomas Cook has launched more regional flights to Tunisia as part of its summer 2019 programme, launching on Thursday (March 1). Cook has announced additional regional flying for the launch of summer 2019, with new flights and holidays from Cardiff and Belfast to Tunisia and the extension of Manchester to Marrakech, TTGmedia reports. Chris Mottershead, managing director at Thomas Cook UK, said: “We are delighted to be launching our summer 2019 holidays this early, with even more choice for our customers looking to travel further afield thanks to the addition…

The agriculture minister has urged French interprofessional organisation Interfel to support the development of a label for the Med region Tunisia’s Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, Samir Taieb, has called on representatives of French trade association Interfel to work with their Tunisian counterparts to create a ‘Mediterranean label’, Eurofruit reports. During this week’s Paris International Agricultural Show, Taieb held talks with Interfel president Bruno Dupont, in the presence of Tunisia’s ambassador to France, Abdelaziz Rassaa, and representatives of various Tunisian interprofessional groups, the source noted. According to a…

Outbound visits by Chinese residents hit a record high of over 130 million in 2017, up 7 percent compared to 2016, making China the world’s biggest travel guest source country, according to a report released by the China Tourism Academy and the online travel service Ctrip on Thursday. Outbound travelers spent nearly $116 billion last year, a year-on-year increase of 5 percent. China is regarded the largest traveler source for 10 countries including Thailand, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Russia, Maldives, Indonesia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea…

Moody’s said in a new report published Wednesday that “the high level of problem loans in Tunisia will continue to weigh on the credit profiles of the country’s banks,” stressing that liquidity conditions will also be challenging. The rating agency’s report is an update to the markets and does not constitute a rating action. Moody’s estimated that the credit growth in Tunisia will remain elevated at around 8%-10%, fueled by recovering economic growth of 2.8% compared with 2.3% in 2017, “in a context of declining domestic savings.” Foreign investment in…

Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines Mustapha Guitouni said that his country is considering exporting electricity to Libya through Tunisia. “Algeria is in the process of preparing the necessary studies to examine the possibility of exporting electricity to Libya through the Tunisian territories,” Guitouni said in response to a question from Turkey’s Anadolu Agency. Libya suffers from power shortages caused by the destruction of a number of electricity plants, while Algeria is trying to boost its foreign exports to increase its balance of foreign currency. The minister added that the two…