Day: March 6, 2024

Tunisia will participate in the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo (Japan) which will be held from April 13 to October 13, 2025, on the theme of "Designing the Society of the Future, Imagining Our Life of Tomorrow." 160 country and nearly 28 million visitors will attend the event. The 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo will take place on the artificial island of Yumeshima, which is located on the waterfront of the Japanese city of Osaka, said, Monday, CEO of the Export Promotion Center (CEPEX) Mourad Ben Hassine, during an information day held on this event at the CEPEX headquarters, in collaboration with the Tunisian-Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCITJ ). The Tunisian pavilion will cover an area of 300 m2 and will be run along three main axes in relation to the chosen theme, namely "the management and optimization of water resources", "healthy local products and cultural heritage" and "Tunisia's progress in the fields of science and medicine," he added. «We will seek to promote Tunisia's image by highlighting the r ichness of its cultural and historical heritage and get visitors immersed in the Tunisian culture and history from the Carthaginian era until the contemporary period,» Ben Hassine pointed out. «We will also promote Tunisia's main wealth, namely its resilient youth who are capable of meeting challenges as well as developing creative and innovative solutions in different areas,» the same source said, adding that « we will make sure that Tunisia could serve as a Japan's strategic partner.» According to Ben Hassine, the Tunisian participation aims to establish win-win partnerships, market the Tunisian offer in terms of goods and services, provide new commercial and exchange opportunities and attract investments in the field of innovation, science and technology. He pointed out that an emphasis will be laid on promoting local tourism and persuade stakeholders that Tunisia could serve as an ideal platform fostering the transfer of knowledge and technologies to other African nations, thanks to its strategic geogr aphical location. Taking the floor, Minister of Trade and Export Development, Kathoum Ben Rejeb, stressed that this participation, which is organized by a national steering committee chaired by the CEO of CEPEX, is part of Tunisia's efforts to adhere to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She spoke of the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) which was held on August 27 and 28, 2022 in Tunisia. She described the conference as «a big success» which helped at devising a work plan aimed at developing African countries. Japanese Ambassador to Tunisia, Takeshi Osuga, declared that this international event which takes place every five years, over six months, offers participating countries a unique opportunity to promote various economic sectors and highlight their efforts aimed at finding solutions to meet current challenges. The Japanese Ambassador congratulated Tunisia on the successful organization of TICAD 8, referring to the agreement signed between Tunisia and Japan, last Feb ruary 26, on building a wastewater treatment station in Gabès. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

The Tunindex benchmark rebounded during Wednesday's session, showing a slight uptick of 0.09% to 8664.9 points, according to broker Tunisie Valeurs. Trading activity remained modest, totalling TND 4 million. Euro-Cycles shares delivered the session's strongest performance, accumulating a transaction volume of TND 251,000, with the specialist in cycles witnessing a 4.6% increase to TND 13.330. The upward trend continues for CIL shares. The leasing company's shares posted a 4.5% advance to TND 20.900. However, trading for the stock remained subdued at TND 2,000. BH Bank shares found themselves at the bottom of the Tunindex. The state-owned bank's shares declined by 3.9% to settle at TND 11.100, amidst negligible trading activity. Poulina Group Holding shares failed to stand out in the session, bending by 2.6% to TND 7. Trading for the stock amounted to a mere TND 65,000 during the session. BIAT emerged as the session's highlight. The shares of the private bank registered a 1.1% increase to TND 91.000, inje cting TND 1.2 million into the market, constituting 30% of the total session volume. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

WINDHOEK: The leaders of Angola and Namibia have expressed the need for the two southern African countries to collaborate in various economic sectors. This is among the outcomes of President Nangolo Mbumba's bilateral talks with his Angolan counterpart, João Lourenço, when they met in Luanda on Tuesday. 'The two presidents underlined the need to strengthen cooperation in the areas of oil and gas, energy, agriculture, and water,' Press Secretary Alfredo Hengari said in a statement. He said that President Mbumba, who took his first bilateral visit to Angola, emphasised that Namibia had a lot to learn from Angola in the oil and gas sectors. To give effect to the Agreement on Cooperation in Petroleum and Natural Gas, Mbumba toured the Sonangol Integrated Logistics Services (SONILS). The hub was created in 1995 to provide logistical support and related services to the Angolan oil, gas, and energy sectors. As a result, Hengari said President Mbumba encouraged the leadership of SONILS to work with their Namibian partners based on a solid and transparent partnership for the benefit of both countries. Hengari said the two leaders also agreed to convene the Namibia-Angola Binational Commission in the coming months to scale up mutually beneficial cooperation between Namibia and Angola. Additionally, Mbumba and Lourenço also agreed to inaugurate the Cassinga Memorial in the coming months. Hengari also noted that President Mbumba thanked his Angolan counterpart for the extraordinary material and emotional support his government provided to the people of Namibia following the death of former President Hage Geingob. Mbumba also toured the Karam Group, a diversified company with steel, nails and pipe operations in Luanda and other parts of Angola. According to Hengari, the company expressed interest in setting up similar operations for the amount of N.dollars one billion, with a potential 350 employment opportunities. 'The management team of the company informed the president that they had secured land in Windhoek and we re hoping to reach a stage when they would commence operations in the near future,' he said. Source: The Namibia Press Agency The Ifriqiya submarine cable in the Ain Meriem area of Bizerte was put into service on Wednesday, in the presence of officials from the Ministry of Communication Technologies and representatives of the private mobile operator Ooredoo Tunisia. Ifriqiya, which has a capacity of 200 Gbt, is connected to the main route between Marseille in France and Abu Talaat in Egypt over a length of 950 km from the Bizerte connection point, offering a high capacity of around 3 TB/s (terabits per second). In a statement to TAP, Kamel Saadaoui, Chief of Staff of the Minister of Communication Technologies, said that this new project is part of the state's strategy and represents one of the priorities in the development of the basic infrastructure of telecommunications networks, as well as an ideal infrastructure for the launch of 5th generation (5G) services. Tunisia has chosen to diversify its operators given the high cost of this type of infrastructure and the need to overcome any problems that may arise, the same source no ted, pointing out that operators are being invited to invest in submarine cables as the country has identified a need for around 6 or 7 submarine cables. Ooredoo Tunisia CEO, Mansour Rachid El-Khater, stressed that the Ifriqiya project is one of the strategic projects launched by Ooredoo to connect the northern Tunisian coast from the city of Bizerte to the city of Marseille in France in record time. Ifryqia is one of the major projects in the digital strategy and an investment magnet for major companies operating in this field, thanks to its high data flow capacity and the quality of the services offered without any interruption problems. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse

The Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation (APII) in partnership with the French international technical cooperation agency «Expertise France», organized, Wednesday in Sousse, the 1st Regional Conference on Crowdfunding . The 2nd conference is scheduled for next September 2024 in Tozeur. The conference, which was attended by government officials and experts, aims to disseminate the culture of crowdfunding and better identify it as a funding mechanism in the governorates of Monastir, Mahdia and Kairouan. At the opening of the conference, Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, Fatma Thabet Chiboub, underlined that crowdfunding is based on raising funds from the public, through platforms dedicated to this purpose in order to fund projects or companies, by making investments in transferable securities or by credits or donations. She added that this funding mechanism is a financial innovation to fund projects, by mobilizing individual savings through online platforms. This mechanism seeks to chang e the way projects are funded, by creating a direct and transparent link between project owners and citizens. Crowdfunding makes it possible to finance startups as well as small and medium-sized businesses in its various stages. According to the minister, crowdfunding is one of the ways of mobilizing financial resources allowing Tunisian expatriates to contribute to the development process in Tunisia by launching investments in the productive economy. APII CEO Omar Bouzouada told TAP that crowdfunding represents an innovative way of funding, through the participation of individuals and other organizations, via online platforms. Bouzouada stressed that crowdfunding will be subject to rigorous control, through three structures, namely, the BCT for credits, microfinance associations, with regard to donations and the Financial Market Council (CMF), for capital participation. He affirmed that this mechanism targets young people wishing to launch innovative projects whose value does not exceed TND 2 million, a dding that individual participations do not exceed TND 20,000 for each participant. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse