The financial and technical cooperation and the joint will to further boost it in the coming period, especially in social protection, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) development and renewable energy fields, were at heart of a meeting between Economy and Planning Minister Samir Saied and World Bank (WB) Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa Ferid Belhaj, held on the sidelines of the 2023 Spring Meetings of the WB Group and International Monetary Fund (April 10-16 in Washington).
The two officials also discussed ways to build capacity to address climate change and achieve food security, and ways to further consolidate and widen cooperation in the social protection field to include the economic empowerment programme launched by the government several years ago.
Emphasis was laid in this regard, on the programme’s effectiveness in helping to provide adequate mechanisms for the benefit of needy categories who have no source of income, in order to improve their living conditions and purchasing power, by helping them set up small projects.
In addition to other scheduled programmes, this programme is in line with the government’s policy to ensure a balance between economic growth and social stability, particularly with regard to the revision of the subsidy system, Saied said.
As far as boosting SMEs is concerned, the minister commended the support of the World Bank, which had recently approved a US$120 million loan under the the Support to Small and Medium Enterprises for Economic Recovery Project, to be disbursed as soon as possible.
The two sides pointed out the need to speed up all the technical and financial stages of the electricity interconnection project between Tunisia and Italy “ELMED.”
They also discussed the projects to be carried out in the renewable energy field and how to improve STEG’s strategy to develop the electricity transmission network.
The possibility that the WB will provide a financial and technical support to deepen the strategic study in progress, in order to identify practical solutions to tackle the water deficit and reinforce food security, including the development of a strategy for saving and rationalising water use, the establishment of a programme to combat water leaks and improve the maintenance of drinking water networks, the use of modern irrigation techniques, the exploitation of treated water in agricultural production, notably for fodder, sea water desalination and brackish water treatment and others projects, were also touched upon during this meeting.
The talk further turned on the measures taken to unblock some WB-funded projects, including the adoption of Law No. 68 to improve the efficiency of the implementation of public and private projects and the recent adoption by a cabinet meeting of 185 measures to improve the business and investment climate, in consultation with the private sector.
Saied and Belhaj affirmed joint willingness to develop bilateral cooperation under the country partnership strategy, which will be submitted to the WB Board of Directors in mid-June.
Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse