Month: November 2022

CIFF Concludes Its 44th Edition

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The closing ceremony of the 44th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), held at the Main Hall, Cairo Opera House, has just ended, in the presence of the Minister of Culture, Dr. Nevine Al-Kilani and a vast number of stars, Egyptian and Arab filmmakers, journalists, media professionals, and iconic figures. The ceremony began with the opening speech of CIFF’s Chairman, artist Hussein Fahmy: Over a period of nine days, the festival presented diversified shows and films to the audience. Additionally, the huge number of audiences was remarkable; he…

French-speaking leaders gather in Tunisia for Francophonie summit

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Some 30 leaders of French-speaking countries met on a Tunisian Djerba island on Saturday to discuss debt relief, migration, food and energy shortages, amid soaring living costs across Africa, Europe and the Middle East due to the war in Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the presidents of six African nations were attending the 18th annual meeting of the 88-member International Organisation of La Francophonie on the island of Djerba in southern Tunisia. European Council President Charles Michel was also in Tunisia for the two-day…

EU supports Tunisia’s ‘recovery’ with $100m grant

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The European Union on Monday approved a 100 million euro ($103 million) grant to Tunisia, whose economy has been hit by the coronavirus pandemic and political unrest. The grant programme ” is intended to support economic recovery efforts and strengthen the progress already made in the distribution of social aid to citizens and businesses in need,” the EU delegation to Tunisia said in a statement. EU ambassador Marcus Cornaro said the European Union was keen to support Tunisia’s economic recovery after the fall of the Berlin Wall and “help Tunisian…

SanLucar receives partnership agricultural investment award in Tunisia

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The multinational company SanLucar, dedicated to the production and distribution of premium quality fruit and vegetables, has just been awarded the Partnership Agricultural Investment Award in Tunisia. Awarded by the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture and the Agricultural Investment Promotion Agency (APIA), this prize recognizes companies with a presence in Tunisia that have stood out for their economic performance and their ability to overcome conjunctural difficulties such as the continuity of their activity during the Covid crisis. The award also highlights the investment effort of the SanLucar Group in Tunisia, where the…

44th Cairo International Film Festival opens

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The 44th edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) kicked off on Sunday evening at the Cairo Opera House, Egypt, with the participation of around 108 films from more than 50 countries and regions. Veteran Egyptian filmmaker Hussein Fahmy, who is also the president of the 44th CIFF, said that holding the festival in the current global context, including the Russian-Ukrainian crisis and the economic recession, was a real challenge. “There were great challenges and we did our best and managed to get solid and good preparations, and we…

Reviving Tunisia’s school system one farm at a time

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Credit goes to Wallah We Can Facebook page The Makthar boarding school in Tunisia looks ordinary but a partnership with NGO Wallah We Can has made it unique. Thanks to patrons the school located in the country’s rural north-west is equipped with over a hundred solar panels and solar water heaters covering the school’s energy needs. The NGO aims to transform more public schools into what it calls a social enterprise. “A public school transformed into what we call a social enterprise; is a school that is energy self-sufficient and…

THE TEAM BEHIND THE WORLD’S BIGGEST JOURNALISM COLLABORATIONS MEETS IN PERSON FOR THE FIRST TIME

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Credit to ICIJ From learning top security tips to reinvigorating a passion for ICIJ’s model for investigating global stories, some of the staff’s newest faces reflect on our news organization’s first face-to-face gathering in three years. ICIJ has, for years, been one of journalism’s loudest collaboration evangelists. We are known for bringing together the biggest groups of journalists ever to collectively bear down on some of the biggest global issues facing our planet. But, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, in recent times we’ve faced challenges convening these collaborations, and, in…

Yassir pulls in $150M for its super app, led by Bond

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Yassir, an African super app platform that offers on-demand services such as ride-hailing, food and grocery delivery, and payments, has raised $150 million in Series B funding, five times what it raised in its previous priced round last November.  The investment was led by Bond, the growth-stage firm that Mary Meeker spun out of Kleiner Perkins in 2018. Other investors in the growth round include DN Capital, Dorsal Capital, Quiet Capital, Stanford Alumni Ventures and Y Combinator via its Continuity Fund, among other strategic investors.  The African startup, first launched in Algeria,…

Tunisian expertise takes part in KAS-BUSINESSMED workshop on Mediterranean free trade agreements

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One year after the first workshop organized on economic recovery, BUSINESSMED and Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung gathered in Turkey on October 14, 2022, leading experts operating in the Mediterranean region for a conference on the economic recovery in Europe and free trade agreements. The event saw the participation of two Tunisian experts, Ms ChemaTriki, currently responsible for industrialization at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and focuses on economic transformation and private sector development in Africa and working on job creation, development of industry and SMEs and employment policies.  The second Tunisian…