SME Chamber

GRTU meets Tunisian businessmen and Representative


GRTU has this week welcomed a
Tunisian delegation which gave GRTU a courtesy call. During the meeting it was
recognised that both Malta and Tunisia have developed strongly and they are
very close countries and there is no reason as to why Malta and Tunisia's
cooperation is stronger.

There is a lot of room and opportunity for
cooperation. GRTU emphasised that it is a pity that Maltese importers import
Tunisian products from countries that are far instead of directly from Tunisia.
The companies that formed part of the
delegation came from the following sectors:

Tunisia now finds itself as an
export-oriented country in the process of liberalizing and privatizing an
economy. Tunisia has a diverse economy, ranging from agriculture, mining,
manufacturing, and petroleum products, to tourism. In 2008 it had a GDP of US
$41 billion. The agricultural sector stands for 11.6% of the GDP, industry
25.7%, and services 62.8%. The industrial sector is mainly made up of clothing
and footwear manufacturing, production of car parts, and electric machinery.
Although Tunisia managed an average 5% growth over the last decade it continues
to suffer from a high unemployment especially among youth.

Tunisia was in 2009 ranked the most
competitive economy in Africa and the 40th in the world by the World Economic
Forum. Tunisia has managed to attract many international companies such as
Airbus and Hewlett-Packard. Tourism accounted for 7% of GDP and 370,000 jobs in
2009.

The European Union remains Tunisia's
first trading partner, currently accounting for 72.5% of Tunisian imports and
75% of Tunisian exports. Tunisia is one of the European Union's most
established trading partners in the Mediterranean region and ranks as the EU's 30th
largest trading partner. Tunisia was the first Mediterranean country to sign an
Association Agreement with the European Union, in July 1995, although even
before the date of entry came into force, Tunisia started dismantling tariffs
on bilateral EU trade. Tunisia finalised the tariffs dismantling for industrial
products in 2008 and therefore was the first Mediterranean country to enter in
a free trade area with EU.

Tunis Sports City is an entire sports
city currently being constructed in Tunis, Tunisia. The Tunis Financial harbour
will deliver North Africa's first offshore financial centre at Tunis Bay in a
project with an end development value of US$ 3 billion. The Tunis Telecom City
is a US$ 3 billion project to create an IT hub in Tunis.

More information if interested in
investing in Tunisia can be found on:
http://www.state.gov/e/eb/rls/othr/ics/2012/191253.htm  

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