Tunis exhibit celebrates long tradition of plastic art, highlights challenges

Plastic art, including painting, sculptures and installations, has a tradition in Tunisia dating to 1936. In celebration of Tunisia’s national heritage month, the Union of Tunisian Plastic Artists inaugurated an exhibition featuring more than 450 works from 265 Tunisian artists. The exhibition runs through April 4 at the Art Gallery of the Palace of Kheireddine and three other galleries around Tunis. “The annual exhibition takes place in different galleries to showcase the works of Tunisian artists,” said Wissem Gharsallah, secretary-general of the Union of Tunisian Plastic Artists. “It is also…

Tunisia raises fuel prices again to reduce budget deficit

Tunisia raised fuel prices on Saturday for the second time in three months in an effort to rein in its budget deficit, one of a series of reforms the country’s international lenders want. The price of a litre of petrol will rise about 3 percent, from 1.80 dinars to 1.85 dinars, starting Sunday, the ministry of energy said in a statement. The last increase was also by about 3 percent, in January of this year.  The International Monetary Fund approved last week the payment of a $257 million tranche of…

Tunisia Continues to Suffer Macroeconomic Vulnerabilities – IMF

Tunisia continues to face elevated macroeconomic vulnerabilities and high unemployment, said the IMF Executive Board after completing the second review under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) Arrangement. In 2017, Tunisian economy made a modest recovery. The country’s debt has “continued to increase, inflation has accelerated, and international reserve cover is now less than three months of imports”, added the IMF in a press release, noting that decisive implementation of the policies under the Fund-supported program is necessary to sustain macroeconomic stability. The IMF completion of the review allows the Tunisian…

Tunisia to host Islamic Development Bank annual meeting

Tunisia will play host of the annual meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) Group, the largest development organization in the Muslim world, in the first week of April. Some fifty-seven ministers of economy and finance of member countries and about one thousand experts, economists and financiers from Tunisia and other countries will attend the meeting, which will be held on April 1-5,  Tunisian Ministry of Development, Investment and Cooperation said on Friday. A signing ceremony of financial partnership agreements between the IDB Group and some member states, including Tunisia,…

Breaking the silence on North Africa: A new EU-Africa partnership after 2020

The EU will soon open negotiations with the 78 countries of the African, Caribbean, and Pacific group on the future of their partnership with the EUin September 2018. This could breathe new life into the relations between the two continents. However, getting there will not be easy, writes Alfonso Medinilla. Alfonso Medinilla is a Policy Officer in ECDPM’s European External Affairs programme. The EU has always pursued two separate tracks in its relations with Sub-Saharan Africa and North Africa, engaging through the ACP-EU partnership with the former, and through the European Neighbourhood…

Tunisia: Strategic Council for the Digital Economy calls for speeding up the DNA

The strategic council of the digital economy has called to accelerate the creation of the Digital Development Agency (DNA). The Strategic Council for the Digital Economy, chaired by the Prime Minister , was born out of the Digital Tunisia meeting organised in 2013. This governance structure, which brings together actors from the public and private sectors and civil society, is intended to oversee developing the national strategy for the digital economy and monitoring its implementation, as per online news portal THD. In an address delivered at the end of the…

5th training course on Structured Participation in Democratic Processes

The North-South Centre of the Council of Europe has opened a call for participants for the 5th training course on Structured Participation in Democratic Processes, which will take place within the framework of the 6th Mediterranean University on Youth and Global Citizenship (MedUni) in Tunis, Tunisia, from the 7 to the 12 May 2018. The training course is part of the North-South’s Centre Euro-Mediterranean Youth Cooperation project and seeks to reinforce the competences of targeted youth organisations – through their representatives – in the field of democratic citizenship and participation in public life. In this…

Tunisia: New structural reforms needed to revive growth and job creation (OECD)

The first-ever Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Economic Survey of Tunisia was presented Thursday in Tunis. It projects growth approaching 3% in 2018 and 3.5% in 2019. The surveys says “expansion will be driven by business investment which is expected to benefit from simplified procedures from the new investment law, and resurgent exports which will get a boost from the recovery in European markets.” It also highlights the significant strides made after the Revolution, “including increased participation in political processes, new freedoms of expression and association, a reduction…

CORP: 72 young people benefit from occupational retraining

A certificate award ceremony for the benefit of 72 young people having benefited from a professional retraining was held Thursday in Tunis by the Centre for Orientation and Professional Retraining (CORP), in partnership with the Tunisian-German Information Centre for Employment, Migration and Reintegration. CORP Director  Youssef Fennira said reconversion actions have affected the professions of Community Manager, Technician in Maintenance of Automated Systems, Commercial and Web Developer. Among these 72 young higher education graduates, 52 have been placed in the labour market. This ceremony is organised one month after the…

Tui to extend Tunisia for 2019 after steady return

Tui is to increase its Tunisia offering for summer 2019 after a steady start since it put the destination back on sale. Holidays to the north African country went back on sale in January, and flights resume in May for the first time since 38 Tui customers, including 30 Britons, were killed in a terrorist attack at the Imperial Marhaba Hotel in the resort of Sousse in June 2015. It will start with a small programme featuring three hotels in Hammamet and flights from four UK airports. Thomas Cook was…