France remains Tunisia’s leading economic partner, both in terms of the number of projects and jobs created over the past year, said French ambassador to Tunisia, Anne Guéguen.
Speaking to reporters, she explained that her country is the leading investor in Tunisia in terms of the number of projects and jobs created, as well as its leading customer, accounting for a quarter of Tunisia’s exports.
She added that the volume of trade between the two countries exceeded 12 billion euros, with a trade surplus of 3 billion euros in Tunisia’s favor, which she considered “a key driver of wealth and job creation”.
During the meeting with journalists from the Tunisian and French media on Friday evening, the diplomat added that French companies had continued to invest in Tunisia in 2024, focusing on quality projects to support the environmental and energy transition in all governorates of the Republic in the fields of water, renewable energy and green hydrogen.
She went on to say that Tunisia is a major partner for France in Africa and North Africa in the field of sustainable development, adding that in 2024, the French Development Agency (AFD) signed contracts worth more than 188 million euros to support the education, sanitation, civil protection and SME sectors.
Tunisia is also the leading partner of the Expertise France program in terms of the number of projects implemented, particularly in support of female entrepreneurship, as the FAST project has contributed to the creation of 650 new businesses run by Tunisian women entrepreneurs,” she added.
2025 to be the year of Tunisian-French partnership
The Ambassador announced that 2025 would be an important year for strengthening the Tunisian-French partnership, based on trust and common interests.
She explained that the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the partnership agreement between Tunisia and the European Union will be an opportunity to deepen cooperation in tackling global challenges such as the supply of clean water and energy and the fight against plastic pollution, in addition to digital development and support for education and employment.
In the same context, the French ambassador pointed out that her country hosts some 14,000 Tunisian students and that 18,000 pupils are enrolled in 20 French educational establishments in Tunisia, confirming that scientific cooperation between the two countries will be strengthened.
She also announced the continuation of efforts to facilitate the movement of qualified entrepreneurs, artists and journalists to work on joint projects, as well as the fight against irregular migration, fraud and, above all, the falsification of documents.
She deemed it necessary to highlight “the development of our capacity to receive visa applicants at the TLS centers, whether in Sfax or Tunis, and to issue more visas than last year (…).
