Day: April 10, 2018

Tunisia seeks to recover USD 2.72 billion of bad loans

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A committee will be set up to monitor this work, which will include five lawmakers Tunisia plans to recover 6.5 billion dinars (USD 2.72 billion) of bad loans in three public banks as part of its banking reforms, the minister of economic reforms told Reuters on Tuesday. Banking reform was required by the International Monetary Fund which it agreed in 2016 to assist Tunisia with a four-year loan programme worth about USD 2.8 billion. In 2015, the government injected USD 400 million to re-capitalize struggling state lenders Tunisian Bank Corporation…

Tunisia plans 1-GW wind, solar auction this month

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Tunisia is expected this month to launch a tender for the procurement of 1,000 MW of wind and solar power, representing an investment of TND 2.5 billion (USD 1.04bn/EUR 847m), Reuters reports, citing a top government official. The international tender is scheduled to start on April 27, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said at an energy conference, as cited by the news agency. The projects will be located in the regions of Kairouan, Tozeur, Tataouine, Sidi Bouzid, Kebeli and Tataouine. Further details were not provided. In March, the North African country pledged…

This Man Hopes to Bring Peace to the Middle East by Solving Sky-High Unemployment

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In 2006, Ron Bruder, an American entrepreneur and property developer, set out to see if he could crack one of the Middle East’s most explosive and intractable problems: youth unemployment. He started a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Education For Employment (EFE) to help young people in the region learn a marketable skill and find employment. These are the crucial first steps to building a stable community—a cycle that was utterly broken, as many youths in the Arab world struggled to land jobs. All too often young people graduated from high…

Italy arrests 13 in high-speed migrant trafficking ring

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Italian authorities have arrested 13 suspects in a high-speed migrant trafficking ring operating between Tunisia and Sicily whose members espoused radical jihadist views. Italian financial police in Sicily said Tuesday that a wiretapped conversation between two traffickers revealed one saying he intended to travel to France and carry out a suicide attack and asking for prayers. The trafficking group allegedly organized transport from the Tunisian port of Nabeul to Trapani in Sicily aboard rubber dinghies equipped with high-speed outboard motors and trained navigators for 3,000 euros ($3,690) to 5,000 euros…