Tunis — World Bank's Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, Ousmane Dione, underlined the WB Group's "willingness to strengthen cooperation and support the Tunisian state's efforts to implement the socio-economic reform vision".
During a meeting between Prime Minister Kamel Madouri and a delegation from the World Bank at the Government Palace in the Kasbah on Tuesday, he expressed the financial institution's desire to "explore the possibilities available for expanding and diversifying the areas of cooperation to include other sectors and opportunities for investing in infrastructure and improving the financing capacity of SMEs.
This is in parallel with improving opportunities and conditions for decent work and helping Tunisia to modernise public infrastructure services for health, water and other priority public facilities.
During the meeting, which was attended by a number of ministers, the challenges and opportunities were discussed, particularly in the areas of environmental transition, energy security, renewable energy, prospects for the development of the water system and the main priority public facilities such as transport, health, education, youth employment and other areas, according to a statement from the Prime Ministry.
The Prime Minister presented to the Bank's delegation "the foundations and principles of the development vision of the President of the Republic, which is based on the development of people-centred economic policies and programmes and the strengthening of the foundations of the social state.»
This vision makes the values of social justice, decent work, the extension of social protection, public services in the provision of quality services and easy access to them its main pillars, in particular through the creation of a social protection system for female agricultural workers and a job loss insurance system for those dismissed for economic reasons.
According to Article 17 of the Constitution, the State guarantees the coexistence of the public and private sectors and seeks to achieve complementarity between them on the basis of social justice, creating a stimulating, fair and transparent business climate to ensure business competitiveness and build a sustainable and integrated national economy, said the Prime Minister.
He stressed that economic decisions and policies are based on the approach of the President of the Republic and are determined within the parameters of national sovereignty.
The meeting was attended by the Minister of Health, the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Industry, Mines and Energy, the Minister of Economy and Planning, the Minister of Social Affairs and the Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries.
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Earlier on Tuesday, President Kais Saied received the Vice President of the Bank's Middle East and North Africa Group, who "expressed his institution's readiness to continue working with Tunisia in line with its objectives".
He added that the meeting with the President of the Republic allowed for dialogue on the social contract and mechanisms for progress on all issues that would further improve the economic and social situation of all Tunisians.
