Tunis, Minister of Industry meets Italian companies

By Arianna Caracciolo.

Tunisian Minister of Industry and SMEs Salah Ben Youssef had a virtual meeting before yesterday with Italian companies active in the country, to take stock of the situation of production activities on the first day of partial and progressive deconfining of Tunisia.  The videoconference was organized by the Embassy of Italy in Tunisia, in agreement with the Tunisian-Italian Chamber of Commerce and also the Director of the ICE of Tunis Donatella Laricci took part. The Ambassador of Italy Lorenzo Fanara underlined the extraordinary patrimony of more than 800 Italian companies in Tunisia, committed to restarting production in full compliance with the health requirements provided for by Tunisian law to protect workers.

At the same time, the ambassador indicated that in this difficult phase, Italian companies expect the Tunisian institutions to respect the principle of legality, transparent administrative procedures and greater ease in accessing credit. Italian companies, as demonstrated in the past, are ready to contribute to the recovery of the country and want to do it quickly and effectively. Similar concepts were reiterated by the President of the Tunisian-Italian Chamber of Commerce, Mourad Fradi. 

Minister Ben Youssef stressed that a crucial period is now beginning in which it will be necessary to find a new way of working to overcome the crisis generated by the pandemic and – in the face of the many questions that have been asked by business representatives – he has expressed his fullness willingness to protect Italian economic operators, ensuring its direct intervention to facilitate the resumption of production activities. The Minister then focused on the importance that the Tunisian Government attaches to the economic partnership with Italy and reaffirmed its commitment so that the transparency of the procedures can be guaranteed in this new phase.