Year: 2018

Tunisia expected to be admitted as COMESA member state in April summit

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Tunisia is expected to be admitted to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) as its 20th member state in a COMESA summit to be held from April 18 to 19 in Burundi, a COMESA’s senior official said Wednesday, xinhuanet reports “The forthcoming summit is very important because Tunisia will be admitted as the 20th member state of COMESA. Besides, Somalia will come back to COMESA,” said COMESA Secretary General Sindiso Ngwenya in Burundian capital Bujumbura. The summit of the heads of state and government of COMESA will be…

Incentive and state policy to internationalise Tunisian companies required (President of CONECT)

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The Confederation of Tunisian Citizen Entrprises (CONECT) International presented its action plan for the year 2018 which focuses on two main axes, namely the development of export and investment, at its annual conference held on Wednesday in Tunis. Adnen Bouassida, Vice President of CONECT International in charge of the French-speaking Africa and Maghreb Pole, said that CONECT International has scheduled for the year 2018 five regional actions and three missions of foreign delegations in Tunisian regions. Besides, three studies will be finalised in 2018. They include a study and report recommendations…

Foreign investments Flow up 12.8% (FIPA)

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The flow of foreign investments jumped by 12.8% at the end of 2017, reaching 2244.4 million dinars (MD) shared out by means of 2128.2MD (+11.9%) in foreign direct investment (FDI) and 116.2MD (+32.3%) in portfolio, according to the foreign investment balance sheet published by the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA). According to the sector-based distribution of foreign investments, the industry sector increased by 21.6%, reaching 974.3MD in 2017, up by 72.2% and 114.5% compared to 2015 and 2014, respectively, FIPA revealed. Foreign investments in the services sector climbed by 13%…

Tunisia’s foreign currency reserves fall to 15-year low

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A worsening trade deficit has further eroded Tunisia’s foreign currency reserves, which are now worth just 89 days of imports, the lowest level in 15 years, central bank figures showed on Wednesday. Tunisia’s trade deficit widened in December 2017 to a record $6.25 billion. The central bank said on its website that foreign currency reserves had fallen to 12.306 billion Tunisian dinars by Jan. 23, enough to cover 89 days of imports, compared with 106 days in the same period a year earlier.  The country has been praised as the…

Siena University trains civil society in Kasserine

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Tuscany region development cooperation programme in Tunisia Siena university in partnership with the Université de Sousse and the Association Tunisienne de Droit Constitutionnel has organised a training course for members of civil society in Kasserine under the title “Décentralisation et participation en Tunisie”, ANSAmed reports. The course aims to strengthen the participation of women and young people in the process of consolidating the democratic transition in Tunisia, also in view of upcoming local elections – the first since 2011 – on May 6, according to ANSAmed. It is to be…

Skills to Succeed for South Tunisia’s youth

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OMV has empowered hundreds of people with new skills to find a job, by implementing a long-lasting community development initiative in the region of Tataouine. Journey with us into South Tunisia and find out how the initiative has impacted the lives of the local communities. It was a time of great uncertainty in the city of Tataouine in Tunisia. The 149,000 residents of the small city south of the capital Tunis had experienced the aftermath of the 2011 revolution not only as liberating, but also challenging. High unemployment rates – up to 51%…

EU removes Tunisia from tax-haven blacklist

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Tunisia has been removed from the European Union’s list of non-cooperative tax jurisdictions, announced the EU’s Economic and Financial Affairs Council (EcoFin) as it convened on Tuesday in Brussels. “Eight jurisdictions have been removed from the EU’s list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes, following commitments made at a high political level to remedy EU concerns. Tunisia, Barbados, Grenada, the Republic of Korea, Macao SAR, Mongolia, Panama, and the United Arab Emirates are moved to a separate category of jurisdictions subject to close monitoring,” the EcoFin said. These eight jurisdictions…

Why you should follow the Mediterranean ‘diet’ – and how to do it

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Leslie Beck, a Toronto-based private-practice dietitian, is director of Food and Nutrition at Medcan. No doubt you’ve heard about the Mediterranean diet. It’s long been reported to be the optimal eating plan for preventing a wide range of diseases including heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. If you’re wondering, though, if trendy new diets such as the keto diet, for instance, are a newer, better option than the Mediterranean diet, the answer is a definitive no. The latest resounding endorsement for the well-researched Mediterranean diet came…

Tunisian Government opens forex market to spark economic growth

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Tunisia faced great economic challenges in the post-Arab Spring era. Now, the country is ready to open up the foreign exchange market to retailers The Tunisian Revolution triggered the Arab Spring that spread into other North African and Middle Eastern countries in 2010-11. Seven years on from the uprisings, Tunisia has made great progress in its political transition to democracy, but its economy still faces challenges in the economic field. The current Tunisian Government is working to boost the country’s economic growth and develop its financial market. One of the…

“It would be a mistake if economic reform process underway in MENA were to be thrown into reverse” (IMF)

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« It would be a mistake if the economic reform process underway in the Middle East and North Africa were to be thrown into reverse,” said Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In an article entitled: “Economic Growth and Fairness in the Middle East and North Africa” published on the IMF blogs site, the official said rising social tensions and protests in several countries across the region “are a clear indication that the aspirations of the people of the region—for…