The President of the Republic, Béji Kayed Sebassi, received on 16/11/2018 at the Carthage Palace His Excellency Mr. Hamdi Tabbaa, President of the Union of Arab Businessmen, on the sidelines of the 22nd session of the Fotouralia Future Business Forum, organized by the Tunisian National Institutions, 11/2018 in Tunisia. The President of the Republic commended the important role played by the private sector in achieving development and employment opportunities in various sectors of production and its effective contribution to the development of economies. Speaking at the opening session of the forum, which was held under the patronage of the Tunisian Prime Minister at the opening session of the Forum, he addressed the Arab Businessmen’s Union at an economically and politically difficult stage.
Al-Tabaa said in his speech that the Arab businessmen union is fully convinced that joint Arab projects create jobs especially in light of unemployment, which has become very high in the Arab world. The role of the Union in highlighting the Arab economy as a strong Arab economic bloc, and working on the development of Arab international relations through the establishment of Arab Business Councils between the Union and a number of private sector bodies in friendly countries that have economic relations with the Arab private sector such as Turkey, Brazil, China, Germany. And that any Arab-Arab economic bloc or with European friends would create jobs and important projects that would help revive the Arab economy. Hamdi Tabbaa said that there are many commonalities between the two countries, considering that Tunisia is the economic gateway to Africa. Some of the objectives of this session of the International Business Development Forum were highlighted by the promotion of investment in Tunisia and the improvement of its business culture. The Tunisian economy has many advantages, notably the strategic geographical location linking Africa and Europe as well as the availability of important agricultural resources.
Al-Tabba also pointed out that the issue of Arab economic integration and cooperation is one of the most important issues of concern to the Arab joint labor institutions, of which the Union is one of them, especially in the light of the regional and international challenges faced by the Arab countries, namely the changes in the global system of globalization, the huge global economic blocs and the accelerating challenges in technology: Information and communication. Therefore, the integration into the Arab countries and the development of joint cooperation among them in all fields are the best way to enhance the economy and competitiveness, and to address all challenges.
The Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Al-Shahed confirmed that the future business forum came under the precise circumstances of Tunisia, especially economic, stressing his keenness to achieve the results of the forum in terms of providing all support for the establishment of projects and the creation of job opportunities. Tunisia has become an investment platform in light of the presence of 680 companies from different countries And the witness considered that the transformation of Tunisia into an investment platform comes for several considerations, the most important of which is the improvement in the business climate, as revealed by the Forum on Doing Business, where it revealed Tunisia’s progress of 8 degrees, as well as the investment law offers privileges in addition to the remarkable improvement of security stability. The witness also stressed the importance of the social and solidarity sector to motivate the Tunisian government to prepare a draft law on solidarity and social economy.
For his part, Tariq Al-Sherif, President of the Confederation of Tunisian National Institutions, stressed the importance of organizing such international forums, which comes within the framework of supporting investment and the private sector, in view of the important number of businessmen involved, in order to further support the investment and the business climate through the establishment of partnerships with countries and economic groups of different Countries of the world
At the same time, Françoise Villan, president of FUTURALLIA, the founder of the Forum, founded 30 years ago in France, said that the organization of the Forum for Future Business in Tunisia for the close association between France and Tunisia encouraged the organization of 22 forums in which the Forum aims to support French SMEs To partner with institutions from around the world. For his part, Fronson Aselan, head of the SME of France said that without the success of SMEs, the private sector cannot succeed, stressing the need to create an investment climate suitable for the success of the sector and support its ability to drive growth and employment opportunities.
The forum was attended by more than 650 owners from more than 30 countries: Algeria, Belgium, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Djibouti, Egypt, Spain, France, Italy, Jordan, Madagascar, Mali , Monaco, Morocco, Niger, Poland, Qatar, Senegal, Tunisia, Turkey, Libya, Luxembourg, With the participation of the following sectors: Industry, Food, Automobile, Manufactured Materials, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Plastic, Call Centers, E-Commerce, Construction, Public Works, Design, Electronic Materials, Energy, Education, Research, Environment, Sustainable Development In addition to the availability of spaces for the participants, 35 participants were allocated for the exhibition and 10 were allocated for the participants. to Heads of delegations, 20 companies, 5 partners and event financiers and others.
In this context, a round table on investment opportunities in Tunisia was held under the patronage of Ziad al-Atari, Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation