Eight financing and partnership agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoU), focusing on economic, cultural, religious and health sectors, were signed Thursday between the Tunisian and Saudi Governments on the sidelines of the 9th Tunisian-Saudi Joint commission held on July 26-28 in Tunis.
It is a joint working program between the Saudi General Investment Authority and the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA-Tunisia); A memorandum of understanding between the Tunisian government and the Saudi Fund for Development, including an export program benefiting government projects in Tunisia with a total value of $ 200 million; A memorandum of understanding between the Tunisian Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Saudi society ELM and an executive program of cultural cooperation between Tunisia and Saudi Arabia for the period 2017-2019.
Both sides also signed a $ 85 million grant agreement to finance the Saudi Fund for Development project for the construction and equipping of Salmane ben Abdelaziz University Hospital in Kairouan; A $ 15 million grant agreement to finance the rehabilitation project of the Okba Ibn Nafaa mosque and the former Medina of Kairouan; A loan agreement worth $ 40 million financed by the Saudi Fund for Development and dedicated to finance the project to construct and equip two “B” hospitals in the cities of El Jem and Sbiba and a $ 85 million loan agreement between the Tunisian government and the Saudi Fund for Development to finance the second phase of the social housing project.
On this occasion, Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation and Interim Finance Minister Fadhel Abdelkefi stressed that the signing of these agreements “is the culmination of several months of joint work between the two countries, initiated since the Tunisia 2020 Conference which was attended by a large Saudi delegation “.
Referring to the new investment law which, he said, equally treated domestic and foreign investors, he reaffirmed Tunisia’s commitment to put in place a new development model more open to public-private partnerships.
For his part, Saudi trade and investment minister Majed Ben Abdullah Al-Qasabi reaffirmed his country’s determination to strengthen cooperation with Tunisia and to build permanent bridges of partnership between the two countries.
He also stressed that the main lines of this cooperation had been established and that the next step would be the implementation of executive plans, with clear deadlines and targets.
Al-Qasabi is chairing a Saudi government delegation composed of 53 businessmen who participated in the Tunisian-Saudi economic forum held on Thursday on the sidelines of the Tunisian-Saudi joint commission.
