Category: opinion

Tunisia’s Best Hope for Economic Reform

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Eight years after supplying the spark that lit the Arab Spring, Tunisia is again bracing for political upheaval in 2019, Bloomberg Opinion said in its website. Abassi has restrained spending by tightening access to credit, and raising the bank’s key interest rate, from 5 percent to 5.75 percent in March, and then to 6.75 percent in June. Since then, he has resisted IMF calls for further rate hikes, and defied dire predictions by holding the inflation rate to 7.5 percent. He has also allowed the dinar to weaken steadily, in line with the IMF’s…

WB: 300 million new jobs needed for MENA region by 2050

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The World Bank said that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region needs to create 300 million new jobs by 2050. Vice President for MENA at the World Bank, Farid Belhaj, took part in a conference on the theme “Investing in Human Capital for a Better Future for the Region” held Friday in Tunis. Two reports on global development prospects for 2019 and education in the MENA region were presented as part of the event. In turn, World Bank (WB) Co-ordinator Federica Salio said “Tunisia is the first country…

Unlike other Arab regimes, Tunisia’s remembers old crimes (The Economist)

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Eight years after the Arab spring most Arab regimes treat these words as policy.  Tunisia is different. On December 14th its Truth and Dignity Commission (IVD) held its final public meeting. Modelled on South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the ivd’s mandate goes back to 1955, a year before Tunisia gained independence from France. Most of its work has focused on the dictatorship of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who ruled the country from 1987 until 2011. By the end of 2018 it will hand the government its final report, a…

First global online summit on climate change on Thursday

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A virtual world summit on climate change will be fully online, Thursday, November 22, 2018, and will be the first international meeting zero carbon (no transport, no industrial processes and no waste). This initiative is launched by Marshall Islands President Hilda Heine, whose country is threatened by rising water levels as a result of global warming. This summit would be the first international meeting to be held online with the participation of the leaders of 48 countries most threatened by climate change, such as Bangladesh and the Philippines and also…

Statement of Tahya Tounes Association after Habib Bourguiba Avenue’s terrorist attack

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After the last terrorist attack of Habib Bourguiba Avenue that aimed to undermine the security of Tunisia and its stability in an attempt to tarnish its image on the regional and international level, Tahya Tounes Association for the dissemination of democracy released a statement in which it strongly condemns all the attempts to undermine Tunisia’s security and shake its stability. The Tahya Tounes Association also voiced its support to the efforts exerted by the security and military officers for the sake of Tunisia’s security and immunity. In this statement, the Association calls…

Governments must invest more in disaster risk reduction, says IFRC

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Disasters will continue to hamper efforts to achieve sustainable development unless governments do more to anticipate and reduce their risk, warns the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), during the Africa-Arab Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction held in Tunis. This year, millions of people living in crisis have not been receiving the humanitarian assistance they desperately need—partly due to the lack of sufficient investment in disaster and crisis preparedness, as well as resilience-building. Dr Fatoumata Nafo-Traoré, IFRC Regional Director for Africa said that evidence has shown that adequate…

In Tunisia, tourists back, but revenues do not follow

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More than six million tourists are coming to Tunisia this year, more than in 2014, before a series of devastating attacks: but if tourism rebounded, the economic benefits do not follow, between poor management, competition, and difficulty in repatriating foreign currency. The tourism revenues in euros increased by 28% year on year, from 1 January to 20 September, to eur 1 billion, for 6.2 million tourists, according to the tunisian government. This is more tourists than the whole of the year 2014 (6,07) but, at the same time, less than…

Tunisia ‘at a turning point’ stresses UN rights expert

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An independent UN human rights expert welcomed on Thursday the progress made towards democratic reform in Tunisia, since the 2011 revolution, and emphasized the importance of protecting freedom of peaceful assembly and association. “Tunisia is at a turning point in its post-revolution history,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and association, Clément Nyaletsossi Voule. His statement followed a 10-day visit during which new legislation on the issue was being discussed. “My meetings with various interlocutors allowed me to understand the stakes of the democratic transition,”…

Saudi Arabia pillar of peace and stability

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The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is making its way, amid international storms, firmly and with confidence making it clear that the decades ahead, until 2030, will be the decades of launching a new reality and an ambitious future planned tightly by the Saudi leadership for further stability and prosperity for the Saudi people. This is the vision that re-launched the dreams in the era of the fall of economies and the era of the miserable citizen and the broken homelands. The Saudi citizen realizes before any others that his country…

Mahdia: integration of archaeological sites into tourist circuit is an urgent need

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(TAP/Mohamed Neji Ben Gamra) – Located in the east coast and less than an hour south of Sousse, the city of Mahdia is a modern tourist resort with some of the most beautiful beaches of Tunisia, and well-known for its active fishing harbour. Mahdia also witnessed some important historical events, starting from the Phoenicians and Romans and later the Fatimids, making the city host several monuments that remind of a prestigious past. Speaking to TAP Mohamed Houas Mahdia regional museum curator and representative of the National Heritage Institute in Mahdia…