Tunis — Tunisian, Algerian and Libyan employers' organisations (the Tunisian Confederation of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA), the Algerian Economic Renewal Council (CREA) and the Libyan General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture agreed on July 22 in Algiers to set up a cooperation council.
The agreement establishing the council was signed by the respective presidents of these organisations at a meeting held on Monday in Algiers, following a set of consultations between the three organisations.
The council will be tasked with endeavouring to achieve global economic integration, strengthening the private sector's contribution to development efforts, economic and trade cooperation and resilience against the challenges facing the three countries.
It will also be in charge of organising business and partnership meetings bringing together economic players in the public and private sectors on a regular and alternating basis between the three countries.
It will work to harmonise measures to facilitate trade in goods and financial transactions between these countries.
The goal is also to create a unified database that will be accessible to economic operators in these countries.
The council will target the building of partnerships and high value-added investment projects, notably in border regions, and will explore the opportunity to launch major development projects in priority sectors and regions, while ensuring their integration into global value chains.
The three employers' organisations reiterated their call to speed up the creation of free trade zones and the establishment of intelligent industrial zones in border regions.
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They underlined the need to make the most of the assets of border regions in terms of raw materials and conventional and renewable energy, in order to boost the competitiveness of companies and build their capacity to export to African and global markets.
The council will also ensure that young people are better integrated into joint investment projects and that their creations and innovations are better protected.
It will also endeavour to optimise the use of the logistical resources available in the three countries, by encouraging the stepping-up of land, sea and air links.
It will regularly assess cooperation between economic operators in the three countries and propose solutions to iron out any obstacles that may arise in this field.
Moreover, the council will urge the setting up of an effective mechanism to guarantee the mutual opening of markets between the three countries, by protecting the registered trademarks and the origin of the products of each of them.
The first consultative meeting between the leaders of Tunisia, Algeria and Libya was held on April 22, 2024, at the invitation of President of the Republic Kais Saied.
The decision to hold this meeting was made on the sidelines of the 7th Summit of the Heads of State and Government of the Member Countries of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), held in Algiers, during which the three leaders agreed to hold regular tripartite meetings to pool resources and means for better development in the three countries.
