Tunisia-Libya invites Tunisian companies to reactivate their contracts

The Libyan government calls on Tunisian enterprises which had concluded contracts as part of the “Libya of Tomorrow” programme suspended since 2010, to reactivate these contracts and initiate consultations with their representatives to get back to work, said Vice President of the Tunisia-Africa Business Council (TABC) Issam Ben Youssef.

These contracts, concluded as part of this programme launched in 2006, could drain a turnover from 3 to 4 billion dinars, he said in a statement to TAP, pointing out that the resumption of these contracts will help reboot the economic activity, keep factories running and hence create jobs for the Tunisian manpower in Libya. “Tunisia remains Libya’s strategic partner and “neither Turkey nor Italy are likely to able to take its place on this market,” affirmed the official who recently visited Libya.

This visit offered the opportunity to Issam Ben Youssef to meet with the ministers of foreign affairs, of agriculture, of labour and training and of local governance, as well as the Libyan National Industry Promotion Authority (NIPA) members. He also had talks with representatives of the Libyan Businessmen Council and the Libyan Islamic Bank Director General.

In his view, all that is needed is to identify solutions to iron out the existing difficulties and manage to reinvigorate bilateral cooperation.

He called in this regard, to facilitate administrative procedures for the Libyan investor, to give him priority and incentives and to activate the free trade agreement between the two countries, which dates back to 2001.

He pointed to the need to pay more attention to border regions, modernise the crossing points, improve the services offered to travellers, reduce waiting hours and ensure the smoothness of trade between both countries by easing administrative procedures.

Ben Youssef further called for the creation of joint border industrial areas on the Libyan side to make the most of the low cost of energy in this country, which will in turn affect the price of manufactured goods to the advantage of the consumer.

The Libyan minister of local governance had expressed willingness to organise meetings and twinnings between the municipalities located on the Tunisian-Libyan borders, and encourage the sharing of experiences and expertise in this field, Ben Youssef recalled. Besides, the TABC official called for boosting trade between the two countries, so as to regain the same level achieved before 2010, while endeavouring to finalise the transactions in local currencies (Tunisian dinar against Libyan dinar) instead of using foreign currencies such as the US dollar and the Euro.

Tunisia should allow the transit of Libyan imports from Europe through its ports, as stipulated in the Convention on the Contract for the International Carriage of Goods by Road (CMR Convention), the Ben Youssef underlined.

Speaking about Tunisia’s political stand regarding the Libyan conflict, the official indicated that Tunisia had first adopted a prudent and neutral position while trying to bridge points of view and reconcile between the various protagonists, but this had“unfortunately negative consequences, contrary to other countries that took advantage of the situation and have succeeded to access the Libyan market for years.”

The Tunisian government has not so far adopted a clear diplomatic and strategic approach, except for few actions carried out by the Foreign Ministry and the efforts exerted by the Tunisian embassy to Libya, “though it lacks the necessary financial means,”

he estimated.

He called in this regard, the Foreign Ministry to review the classification of Tunisian representations aboard according to their diplomatic and economic importance, while increasing the number of diplomats and the budget provided to some of them, so that they achieve the excepted goals.

Despite the current situation, Libya would prefer to collaborate with Tunisia in view of its geographical closeness, “and in recognition of Tunisia’s position, which welcomed Libyans at a time when other countries imposed restrictions on their entry,” he said.

The TABC will organise the Tunisian-Libyan Economic Forum on March 11 in Sfax.

Over 200 Tunisian and 100 Libyan business leaders operating in the construction, trade, industry and services sectors, are expected in this event.Ministers, senior government officials, heads of public institutions and heads of trade chambers of the various Libyan regions will also attend the event.

This forum whose theme is “Hope and Challenge to Build an Integrated Economy,” will examine the difficulties facing business leaders in both countries, notably issues related to transport and logistics, banking sector’s support to enterprises and government institutions’ assistance.

(TAP)