Tunisia sees huge potential for enhancing trade, investment ties with China

TUNIS, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Tunisian trade officials and business leaders on Thursday highlighted the huge potential for enhancing the North Africa country's trade and investment relations with China.

"This would be possible and achievable given the potential in the fields of green technology, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, construction and infrastructure, health, tourism and technological and digital innovation," Salma Elloumi, first vice-president of Confederation of Citizen Enterprises of Tunisia (CONECT International), told a Tunisia-China economic and commercial meeting held in the Tunisian capital of Tunis.

"We should also explore the possibilities of increasing professional exchange between Tunisian and Chinese companies," Elloumi said.

The meeting was organized for the benefit of an economic delegation of 20 Tunisian companies, which will visit China to participate in the 3rd China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo to be held in the central Chinese city of Changsha between June 29 and July 2.

Statistics presented during the meeting showed that the trade volume between Tunisia and China reached about 763 million U.S. dollars in the January-April period in 2023, an increase of 12.5 percent from the same period last year.

Jalel Tebib, director general of the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency (FIPA), noted that China is Tunisia's 4th largest commercial partner in the world and its largest partner in Asia. In 2022, China was Tunisia's second largest supplier, he added.

China's investment in Tunisia amounts to about 16.2 million U.S. dollars, a figure described by Tunisian officials and business leaders as relatively small given the enormous potential for increasing investment ties between the two countries.

Riadh Attia, deputy director of the Export Promotion Department at the Tunisia Export Promotion Center, said that there is huge potential for significantly increasing Tunisian exports to China, citing that there are many Tunisian products with high export potential to China, including seafood and electric conductors.

"In order to promote the partnership as well as complementarity between Tunisia and China, it will be necessary to increase efforts to boost investment in Tunisia and to motivate co-production and industrial subcontracting in this North African country," Attia said.