Tunisia on Regional Development. The Twinning Project Closes and Originates New Partnerships

The closing seminar of the EU-Tunisia administrative Twinning project dedicated to “Institutional Building of Regional Development Agencies for the Promotion of Private Investment” involved at the same table Abdelhamid  Triki, Sub-secretary for Foreign Investment of the Ministry of Development and International Cooperation, Patrick Crezé, Deputy Chairman of Diact - French company - and Marco Villani, Director General of Formez as well as the project team and, of course, the representatives of the beneficiaries, namely the Tunisian Regional Development Bodies, for the purpose of sharing opinions about the results and the opportunities emerged during these two years of activities. 
With a budget amounting to 1.330.000 € and approximately 750 work days for Italian and French experts to be carried out throughout the economic Tunisian regions, and seven study visits which allowed the Tunisian officials to meet the Italian and French administrations in charge of regional development during 330 work days, the Twinning closed with a realization rate of approximately 98%: This is a result which can be considered as excellent not only from the quantitative viewpoint, but above all with reference to qualitative aspects. 
In this regard, two of the key project themes focussed on “Strategic analysis of territories” and “Regional public communication” in relation to which the technical experts involved together with the Tunisian top managers with whom the collaboration was established during the first two years of the project, led the activities .
The strengthening of the process of international opening of the Tunisian regions as well as the capacity of the Regional Development Bodies to establish partnership liaisons with territorial key bodies and European counterpart bodies were demonstrated by the drawing up of agreements and Memorandums of Understanding.
With reference to Italy, the four new partnership agreements were sealed on the occasion of the seminar: Invitalia with the General Commissaryship for Regional Development and the Regional Development Bodies in the North-west, Central-west and South; Formez with the General Commissaryship for Regional Development; Intertrade - Salerno signed a Memorandum of Understanding with north-western and central-western Development Bodies.
Great satisfaction was expressed by the Director General of Formez, Marco Villani, who emphasized the priority attributed by the Italian administrations at central and regional level, to the relationships with South Mediterranean countries by underlining how common difficulties of the territories in the two shores may turn into opportunities for growth and co-development. And to catch this is of great relevance.