Tunis — President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali received on Wednesday morning Mr Rafik Belhaj Kacem, Minister of the interior and local development who briefed him on the program of activities of the Ministry for the coming period.

The President of the Republic focused more particularly on the efforts exerted at the regional and local levels and issued recommendations to further strengthen the financial and human resources of local regional and local councils, of consolidating their prerogatives insofar as employment and investment are concerned, and to boost the regions' financial basis and its infrastructure, so as to make it into an active development pole.

President Ben Ali also took cognizance of the implementation of the program of communal investment. He stressed the importance of speeding up its realization and of providing municipalities with limited resources with all the necessary help in order to strengthen their contribution to the improvement of the living conditions of citizens, as well as the protection of the environment.

Within the framework of the follow up of the activities of the road safety agency to prevent accidents, the Head of State stressed the need to intensify efforts to inform and sensitize road users , as well as boosting the role of the national traffic observatory, in coordination with all the parties involved and in particular, the associative network.