Category: business

With 2350 tourists on board, “Costa Cruises” cruise ship Costa Favolosa docked at the port of La Goulette on Tuesday from Palermo, Italy, after an eight-year interruption. Launched in 2011, the Costa Favolosa is one of the largest cruise ships in the Mediterranean, with 1,508 cabins. It is 290 meters long and has 17 floors. Costa Cruises, founded in the 1940s, is one of the oldest customers of the Port of La Goulette and has been operating voyages to Tunisia since the 1980s. Costa Cruises’ return to Tunisian ports is…

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) have announced the establishment of a Task Force for Entrepreneurship and Job Creation in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt. This is a joint task force to encourage entrepreneurship and stimulate job creation and growth in these three countries, according to an EBRD press release. The official launch of the Task Force took place yesterday, September 21, 2023, during a workshop at the AfDB’s North Africa Regional Office in Tunis. This joint Task Force on entrepreneurship and very…

The 6th edition of the African Trade and Investment Finance Forum (Fita) started on Wednesday, September 20, 2023, in Tunis, at the initiative of the Tunisia-Africa Business Council (TABC). The two-day event, organized under the theme: “Africa in the midst of the global crisis and the role of the private sector in sustainable and inclusive economic transformation”, aims to “get across the message that Tunisia is not a racist country and that all Africans are welcome here under the law”, declared TABC President Anis Jaziri at the opening of the…

Secretary General of the Tunisian Energy Society Fayçal Farhat Thursday said on Express Fm that up to the end of June 2023, Tunisia’s energy security stood at around 52%, adding that 50% of energy needs come from imports, which is considered a very low rate. He affirmed that the solutions lie in exploiting the resources currently available to Tunisia, stressing that it is unreasonable that national production of renewable energies should not exceed 2%. Farhat went on to say that energy development projects, concepts and strategies should be put into…

Tunisia’s tourism sector is booming, with a remarkable 62.4% increase in foreign tourist arrivals in the first eight months of this year, the Ministry of Tourism said on Friday. According to the Ministry, between January and August this year, the total number of tourists reached 6.23 million. This remarkable growth can be attributed to a substantial increase in the number of French (up 23%), German (up 66.3%), Italian (up 25.9%) and Swiss (up 23.7%) tourists compared to the same period in 2022. In addition, there was a significant increase in…

Tunis will host the first IFRIQUIA ENERGY HUB from September 18 to 20, 2023, at the City of Culture. This major event, which will bring together the energy community in Tunisia and Africa, is organised by the Tunisian Energy Professionals Association (TENS, Tunisia Energy Society) with the support of several institutional partners such as the Entreprise Tunisienne des Activités Pétrolières (E. T.A.P.), the Agence Nationale pour la Maitrise de l’Energie(A.N.M.E.), AGIL Energy, the Green Hydrogen Organization (GH2), the Association Tunisienne du Pétrole et du Gaz (A.T.P.G.), the Societe Tunisienne de…

Tunisia’s fiscal deficit is expected to narrow to 5.8% of GDP in 2023, with the surplus reported in 1H23 unlikely to be sustained, Fitch Ratings said believing some costs relating to subsidies and transfers over the period have not yet been captured in the budget numbers. Tunisia posted a budget surplus of TND58.8 million (around 0.4% of GDP) in 1H23, influenced by lower-than-expected spending which reached only 38% of the full-year budgeted level. Subsidies and transfer expenditure in 1H23 was just 27% of the annual budget. We expect energy and…

Inflation rose to 9.3% in August 2023 after five consecutive months of decline, compared with 9.1% in July 2023 and 9.3% in June 2023, the National Statistics Institute (INS) announced on Tuesday. This rise in inflation is due to an acceleration in the rate of price increases between August and July of this year compared with the same period last year, particularly in the “Food” group, where the year-on-year increase in prices rose from 14.2% to 15.3%, the “Alcoholic beverages and tobacco” group (from 1.8% to 4.6%) and the “Hotels…

The Arab Authority for Agricultural Investment and Development (AAAID) will support agricultural development projects in the governorate of Sidi Bouzid as part of the “Central Production Market Platform Project”, which covers 70ha at a total cost of TND 116 million. This project was the focus of a meeting held on Tuesday between the Minister for the Economy and Planning, Samir Said, and the Chairman of AAAID, Mohammed bin Obaid Al Mazrooei. AAAID will contribute TND 22.3 million to the capital of the company managing this project. The two parties also…

A delegation from the Pakistani company TARIQ GLASS INDUSTRIES LTD, comprising Mr Mohamed Baig, Deputy Managing Director, and Mr Mustafa Baig, Technical Director, visited FIPA-Tunisia on September 1, 2023. TARIQ GLASS INDUSTRIES LTD is the leading glass manufacturer in Pakistan. It has grown from a family business established in 1982 to a company listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. It produces over 1,500 tonnes of float glass, glass for tableware and containers (opal and pharmaceutical glass). The company exports to 50 countries. According to FIPA, during the meeting, the company’s…