Tunis: Qatar tops the Arab countries in terms of investment in Tunisia, Qatari ambassador to Tunisia, Abdullah bin Nasser Al Hamidi said yesterday.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the International Investment Conference on Tunisia (Tunisia 2020) after he signed an agreement with the Tunisian Minister of Development, Investment and international Cooperation, Fadel Abdel Kefi.
According to the agreement, Qatar will cover the expenses of the two-day conference which concluded yesterday.
The Qatari Friendship Fund (QFF) has announced that the Fund has created since 2013 more than 11,000 new job opportunities and supported and implemented 3,400 projects spread over seven Tunisian regions. Qatar is one of the major supporters of Tunisia and is currently implementing several projects along with donations granted to Tunisia, a senior Tunisian official said.
What the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani announced at the opening session of the conference allocating $1.25bn for Tunisia is a great support, said Khalil Laabidi, General Director of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency “FIPA-Tunisia”. “The important thing is Qatar is committed to helping Tunisia and investing in different development projects. We have an office in Doha coordinating all investment activities there like other GCC states,” Laabidi told the Peninsula on the sideline of ceremony held to sign an investment agreement with Mexico.
“ We are planning to open more offices in the GCC states to encourage investments and today (Wednesday) Qatari businessmen from the Qatar Chamber will hold a meeting with their Tunisian counterparts to discuss implementation of some industrial projects including Petrochemical, plastic, logistics and free zones,” he added.
FIPA-Tunisia is a public institution set up in 1995 under the supervision of the Ministry of Development Investment and International Cooperation with the aim of promoting investments. The “Al Majed Group” in Qatar yesterday announced that it is going to develop a tourism project in La Cigale Gamrat area in Tunisia at a cost of $200 m. Some 30 agreements were signed on the first day of Tunisia 2020.
At the ceremony held at the Convention Centre, agreements were also signed with the European Union for several donation programmes totalling € 200 m.
The General Commissioner of Tunisia 2020 Mourad Fradi said Tunisia has great potential to be an investment hub, and the situation is encouraging.
The organising committee received more than 12,000 applications for participation and the committee approved around 4,000 applications, Fradi told this daily.
The number of participants reached more than 2,700 people and this clearly reflects the fact that the investment environment in the country is encouraging and gaining confidence of the business sectors, said Fradi.
