Tunisia and the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group signed, Thursday in Tunis, six financing agreements totalling EUR 377 million, i.e. nearly 830 million Tunisian dinars (MTD) allocated to road projects, regional development and employment.
The agreements provide for funding Tunisia’s Road Infrastructure Modernisation Project (PMIR) to the tune of EUR 191 million (418 MTD) and financing of the budget support programme for regional development and job-creation in Tunisia (PADRCE) with EUR 183 million (400 MTD).
These projects involve conducting a study on strengthening the design of an industrial and innovation policy with a budget of 2.2 million dinars and another on structuring and strengthening the competitiveness of growth sectors with 2.2 MTD.
The agreements were signed by Minister of Development, Investment and International Co-operation Yassine Brahim and AfDB Regional Director North Africa Jacob Kolster.
Brahim said the AfDB has met its commitments to Tunisia in 2015 by lending it EUR 465 million, i.e. nearly 1 billion dinars to fund priority projects.
He also commended the role played by the bank in terms of technical assistance which has affected nearly 30 strategic fields with a value of nearly 50 million dinars in the past five years.
For his part, Kolster noted that the budget support programme for regional development and job-creation in Tunisia is likely to contribute to providing equal changes in access to social services and therefore reduce social and regional imbalances.
The programme aims to upgrade administrations in regions through better targeting of social assistance programmes and contribution to reducing unemployment from 15% in 2015 to 14% in 2017.
Tunisia, which had been the seat of the AfDB from 2003 to 2014, is among the top three funding recipients of the bank with 1.5 million Euros, i.e. 3.3 billion dinars since 2011, said Kolster.
