Deputies of the Assembly of People’s Representatives (ARP) examined, during a plenary session held Wednesday at the Bardo Palace, a draft law of a loan agreement signed between Tunisia and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
The loan, worth €203 million (nearly $220 million dollars), or the equivalent of nearly TND681 million, is meant to fund the Tunisia Economic Development Corridor project, regarding the national road No. 13, linking Kasserine, Sidi Bouzid and Sfax.
The loan will be repaid over a period of 21 years, including 8.5 years of grace, at an interest rate (6-month Euribor) of 3.832% as of April 1, 2024 (with a variable interest rate of 0.89% on the same date). It reached 4.722% on April 1, 2024.
The IBRD is committed to financing the creation of development projects as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, all along the road (Kasserine-Sidi Bouzid and Sfax).
The project cost estimated at nearly 278.8 million dollars, will be carried out over 6 years by the Ministry of Equipment, in its part relating to infrastructure, and by the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), in its part relating to the creation of development projects and SMEs, throughout this corridor.
The project is financed by the IBRD and by the State budget for an amount of 38.8 million dollars, as well as by the beneficiaries for an amount of 20 million dollars. It seeks to connect the country’s interior governorates, namely Kasserine and Sidi Bouzid to the governorate of Sfax, through the doubling of national road No. 13. It also aims to create economic dynamics in the above-mentioned regions, particularly by encouraging the creation of development projects and SMEs by the inhabitants of the regions concerned.
As part of the strategic corridors programme, the project will make it possible in the long term to achieve a set of objectives, namely improving links between the interior governorates and coastal industrial hubs, ports and airports as well as fostering the attractiveness of these governorates to attract investment and increase their integration.
According to the CDC, “the Tunisia Economic Development Corridor project aims to reduce regional economic disparities by improving the quality of road transport and easing access to financing for SMEs along the corridor.”
“The most important thing in this project is the creation of a corridor which help create projects in the areas where this road passes. In addition to the costs of building the road estimated at one billion dinars, the cost of this corridor could reach two billion dinars.”
The plenary session was attended by Minister of Economy and Planning, Féryel Ouerghi Sebaï.
