TUNIS: Tunisia received nearly $15 billion in pledges of investment and financial support at an international conference aimed at energising its fragile economy, officials said.
The task now is to work to transform the promises into jobs and growth, they said. The conference was organised as Tunisia seeks to shore up its finances and reverse a decline in foreign investment since the country’s 2011 Arab Spring uprising.
By the end of the two-day event, agreements for investments totalling $6.5 billion had been signed and more than $8 billion in promises of financial support had been made, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed told reporters.
“This conference has brought back confidence in Tunisia’s democracy and allows for a strong economic recovery,” he said. “Tunisia is on course and now the work begins to make this financing a reality.”
Tunisia has been lauded as the sole success story of the Arab Spring uprisings, winning praise for the democratic transition launched when former leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali was toppled five years ago.
Gross domestic product (GDP) is $43 billion, according to the World Bank, and the 2017 fiscal deficit is projected to be 5.4 per cent of GDP. Before the conference, Tunisia had been expecting to seek nearly $3 billion in foreign loans next year.
Economic progress has been hampered by labour unrest, militant attacks, red tape and corruption. Growth is weak and unemployment high, especially among young people. At least 500 foreign companies left after 2011, and new foreign investment fell to 2 billion dinars ($885 million) in 2015 from 3.5 billion dinars in 2010. — Reuters
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