TUNIS, March 16 (NNN-TAP) — Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi Monday closed the 7th Conference of the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP), which was attended by officials of research and funding structures and experts and academics from several European and Mediterranean countries.

During the conference, emphasis was placed on the major issues facing the Euro-Mediterranean region, namely the promotion of research and development (R&D) and innovation, which are essential to sustainable development.

Ghannouchi stressed the depth and richness of the topics discussed during this event, particularly those related to the reality of research innovation in the Mediterranean and the strategies to be adopted by companies, in addition to initiatives aimed at strengthening the process of integration within specialised networks and funding mechanisms necessary for boosting research and innovation.

The prime minister underlined that Tunisia had adhered to all proposals coming out of this conference as they were in perfect harmony with the guidelines and objectives contained in President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali’s programme for the next five-year term (2009-2014), and already underway.

The consolidation of a knowledge-based and technological-content economy, he added, was a fundamental condition for bolstering the pace of growth and the competitiveness of the Tunisian economy, apart from its impact on ensuring job opportunities, notably for university graduates whose share was currently 60 per cent of the additional annual job demands.

Gannouchi reminded that Tunisia had undertaken to draw up a coherent strategy to promote scientific research and technological innovation and make the most of their results.

This strategy relies on increasing the budget earmarked for scientific research, whose share of the gross domesticproduct (GDP) would reach 1.5 per cent in 2014, and enhancing the efficiency of the research system, improving the quality of higher education and its capacity to train high-level researchers on specialities connected with the country’s development priorities.

The prime minister added that work to modernise basic infrastructure, particularly the construction of technological zones which will stretch, in their first phase, over 200,000 square metres had started, in accordance with the most modern international standards, in association with partners of Tunisia, mainly the European Investment Bank (EIB), the World Bank and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFESD).

A risk capital mutual investment fund was created recently with a total amount of 50 million dinars (about 30 million euros), said Ghannouchi. This fund will finance projects with strong technological content to be carried out by he private sector to promote the structure of the national economy and better position activities with high knowledge activity whose share would rise from 25 per cent of GDP in 2009 to 35 per cent in 2016.

He also said that the share of high technological content exports would reach 50 per cent of industry exports in 2016 compared with 25 per cent now.

The prime minister underlined that partnership with the European Union (EU) should not be limited to trade exchanges and financial co-operation, reminding that Tunisia had called continuously to widen and diversify the areas of this co-operation and expand it to other scientific and technological fields.

He reminded, in this context, of the call launched by President Ben Ali since 1993 in his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

Tunisia is striving to develop relations of co-operation with European institutions in several sectors including renewable energy and solar energy, in particular, he added.

The prime minister expressed hope that this conference will signal the start of a new stage of Euro-Mediterranean partnership to devise and implement Euro-Mediterranean programmes in the areas of scientific research and technological innovation.

Ghannouchi called, in this regard, upon the EU to create a network of centres of innovation and excellence in southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries in order to promote research and technological innovation in areas of mutual concern.

He also recommended to the EU to develop mechanisms related to risk capital to help Southern and Eastern Mediterranean companies.

To take up the challenges of employment and competitiveness in the Euro-Mediterranean space, countries of the region are expected to develop North-South and South-South co-operation, he emphasised.

Countries of the region are also expected, he added, to face up to the additional job demands in the next years by achieving a growth rate of over 6.0 per cent per year, strengthening highly employable activities for university graduates and encouraging innovation and creation of a new generation of companies able to develop technological contents. — NNN-TAP

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