Tunis — The new investment code will be looked at, within the framework of an extended national seminar gathering the various concerned stakeholders, Investment and International Co-operation Minister Riadh Bettaieb said.

Speaking Monday to the media after presenting the first draft of the new code to the Prime Ministry, the Minister pointed out that this project, which had been worked out on an assessment of the old code and findings of several specialised studies, "will be an investment code, and not only a code of incentives to investments."

Mr. Bettaieb added that the new code takes into account several priorities, citing in particular regional and comprehensive development, the development of human capital, employment, added value improvement, exports consolidation and starting up Tunisian ventures abroad.

Transparency, investors protection, procedure simplification, facilitation of access to foreign markets, liberalisation of some sectors, combination of various incentives into a single system and deep-rooting the participatory approach are among the objectives of the new code.

The latter should be approved by the Cabinet meeting first, then it will be submitted to the National Constituent Assembly.