GAMMARTH, Tunisia: Tunisia is seeking foreign investors for $6.82 billion worth of infrastructure and development projects, as the government tries to prop up its faltering economy.
"We have a 22 projects in many sectors, including energy, tourism, transport and infrastructure which we will propose to foreign investors present in Tunisia", said Nidhal Ouerfelli, Tunisia's secretary for economy affair. They include projects for the construction of dams and port in the city of Ennfidha.
Tunisia will hold its second free election next month, three years after expelling an autocratic regime. Its exercise in democracy is being praised as a model of political compromise in an unstable region.
But a successful transition to democracy depends on stability and economic recovery, Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa told an investment conference on Monday.
The government cut its forecast for economic growth for the third time this year on Thursday, from 3 percent to between 2.3 and 2.5 percent.
Its budget deficit is set to reach 8 percent of gross domestic product this year, mostly because of wage costs for public workers and subsidies left over from the rule of ousted leader Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali. (Reuters)
