June 1, 2021
French Prime Minister Jean Castex will pay an official visit to Tunisia on June 2 and 3, accompanied by a ministerial delegation and a number of French economic institutions heads, on the occasion of the third session of the Higher Council for Tunisian-French Cooperation.
According to a communiqué of the prime minister, the French Prime Minister will meet the President of the Republic, Qaïes Saïed, Prime Minister Hishem El- Meshishi, and Head of the Tunisian Union for Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, Samir Majoul.
The French Prime Minister will also participate in the economic meeting on digitization organized by the Tunisian Union of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts, in the presence of a number of heads of economic institutions.
It is expected that the work of the meeting of the Higher Council for Tunisian-French Cooperation, in its third edition, will be culminated in several agreements and memoranda of understanding in the fields of economy, development, justice, defense, security, higher education and scientific research, according to the same communication.
The third session of the Supreme Council for Tunisian-French Cooperation, which meets every two years, is considered one of the most important economic dates that bring together senior officials and high-level delegations from both countries.
After the visit of the President of the Republic, Qaïes Saïed and Prime Minister Hishem Meshishi to France last year, the third session of the Supreme Council for Tunisian-French Cooperation will be held, which embodies “close cooperation between the two countries” to strengthen areas of economic cooperation, advance the pace of development and promote promising investment opportunities to create jobs, especially after the consequences of the Covid 19 pandemic that affected all the economies of the world.
It is reported that on December 14, 2020, Prime Minister Hishem El Meshishi visited the Matignon Palace in Paris at the invitation of the French Prime Minister, Jean Castex.
It is noteworthy that the visit of the French Prime Minister comes on the heels of the visit of the President of the Republic, Qaïes Saïed, last week at the Summit on Financing African Economies, which was held in Paris at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron and in the presence of a large number of African heads of state, heads of Western governments and leaders of international and regional financial institutions.
Tunisian-French Cooperation
France is Tunisia’s first provider of foreign direct investment, while Tunisia’s trade balance is structurally deficit.
Tunisia also recorded a bilateral trade surplus with France, which reached 3.5 billion dinars in 2020. In past years, France’s share of the market declined and left in 2017 the top supplier in favor of Italy, and the volume of French imports to Tunisia reached 6.5 billion dinars in 2020 compared to ten billion dinars Tunisian exports to France.
With the exception of the years that saw the supply of aircraft equipment, France’s performance in the field of exporting to Tunisia records a general decline in its market share in favor of emerging countries such as China and Turkey, and the French Development Agency is leading a comprehensive development plan in Tunisia worth 1.7 billion Euros until 2022 in several areas. These include rehabilitating old neighborhoods, supporting entrepreneurial projects for youth, and supporting environmental development in Tunisia.
