The 15th edition of the Carthage International Construction & Building Fair will take place from May 23 to 29, 2022 at El Kram Exhibition Centre, after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is a major appointment whose impact was strongly emphasized at a press conference held by its organizers Thursday in Tunis, given its contribution to the economic recovery of Tunisia.
Director General of the company of international fairs in Tunis Youssef Balma said the budget allocated to communication has been increased by 120% compared to previous editions given the importance of the communication strategy in the success of this show.
“It is necessary to focus on communication for the success of the “Carthage” Fair, he said, noting that three television channels will cover the event in addition to the print media.
For his part, the vice president of the National Federation of Building Kamel Mansour stressed the importance of the building materials industry, nurturing a high value added exceeding 1,000 million dinars per year, providing more than 40,000 permanent jobs and contributing to exports with more than 300 million dinars.
“Allowing each citizen to acquire housing”
But it was most expected in the housing component. “For our part, as the national federation of building, we have contacted the ministries to which we proposed solutions to enable each citizen to acquire housing,” he said, noting that the number of housing units built per year has dropped to less than 5,000 apartments / year while it was about 20,000 apartments / year before 2011.
“The problem lies in the increase in prices and the decline in purchasing power. This increase in prices is a direct result of the increase in costs; namely the prices of land, building materials and labor that have soared. However, the purchasing power has not followed, he explained in a statement to AfricanManager.
In the same context, Fethi Hanchi, Director General at the National Agency for Energy Management (ANME), recalled that the building sector in particular is a large energy consumer. As such, it is the sector most concerned by energy reduction.
“Today Tunisia is suffering from an energy deficit, knowing that over the past ten years, subsidies to the energy sector, have exceeded 15 thousand million dinars. These funds could have been allocated to much higher priority sectors, including development, stressing, in passing, the extreme need to move towards renewable energy.
Spotlight on innovation
This fair will be an opportunity to highlight the innovation and diversity of products in the building and construction sector, to foster partnership and promote exports of products and know-how, as well as to put operators in contact with their counterparts, since seminars and workshops will be held on the sidelines.
The Carthage Fair is organized every two years by the Company of International Fairs of Tunis under the auspices of the Ministry of Public Works and Housing and in collaboration with the National Federation of Building (FNB-UTICA) and the Technical Center for Construction Materials, Ceramics and Glass (CTMCCV).
Around 200 Tunisian and foreign exhibitors from Italy, France, Germany, Turkey and Algeria operating in all branches of the sector’s activity are expected to be present at this fair.
Nearly 50,000 general public and professional visitors from Tunisia and abroad are also expected for this exceptional session of Carthage 2022. The foreign professional visitors come mainly from the Maghreb, Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.
