TUNIS, Oct. 31 (Xinhua) -- Tunisia is to host an International Investment Forum that gathers 1,200 participants from more than 40 countries, highlighting development and social responsibility, official said Tuesday.
The Tunisia Investment Forum (TIF 2017), scheduled on Nov. 9-10, will focus on themes to highlight "the importance of ... Tunisia in the global value chain," said Khalil Laabidi, director general of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA) of Tunisia and the organizer of the event.
TIF 2017 also aims to consolidate the confidence of the investor, encourage and mobilize the foreign investment to promote the private initiative and the public-private partnership.
Extending the success of the last international forum, Tunisia 2010, with 34 billion U.S. dollars investments mobilized in two days, the TIF 2017 "would be able to reflect the beginnings of recovery of our economic model," said Laabidi.
During the first 10 months of the current year, foreign investment registered a growth of 13.6 percent, of which 41.3 percent was injected into manufacturing industries, a main generator sector of new jobs in the country.
"The only concern," regretted Laabidi, "is the regressive performance of the oil sector, where the decline is close to 9.3 percent as this sector alone constitutes 50 percent of our basket."
Jalloul Ayed, the honorary president of the TIF 2017, said this global economic event "will be the opportunity to reflect a rich, varied and attractive Tunisian potential for all local and foreign investors as well as for Tunisian funding partners."
Ayed, also the prime minister of finance in Tunisia after the popular uprising of January 2011, said the event relies on the new Tunisian economic regulation including the Investment Code and the five-year plan 2016-2020.
He also vowed to enhance investment in renewable energy, and industries based essentially on "the Internet of Things," sub-physical systems and cognitive attitudes.
According to him, "Tunisia has all the assets to make this country a logistical and technological hub compared to the entire African continent. A continent that appears more and more in the radar of all investors around the world."
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