Tunisian Leader ‘Satisfied’ With G8 Economic Assistance Pledge
Tunisia’s interim Prime Minister Beji Caid el Sebsi gave a press conference this morning outlining his government’s economic program and his meeting with the leaders of the G8 and multilateral organizations. Though he was not at liberty to announce details of the G8 pledge, the Prime Minister announced that while Tunisia would always welcome additional economic assistance, he was ‘satisfied’ with the G8′s declaration of support for Tunisia’s short- and medium- term economic program.
After the Prime Minister’s opening remarks, Tunisian Finance Minister Jallol Ayed announced that Tunisia’s economic growth plan for the next five years requires a minimum contribution of $5 billion annually and includes the creation of two separate, independently-managed funds, one for public sector projects including infrastructure and another for funding public-private partnerships. The Finance Minister also noted that key reform areas include education reform, reform of government institutions, and financial-sector reform.
It was later confirmed that French President and summit host Nicolas Sarkozy had suggested a target sum of $40 billion in economic assistance for Tunisia and Egypt; the G8 Summit Declaration, released this afternoon, announced that “multilateral development banks could provide over $20bn, including €3.5bn from the EIB, for Egypt and Tunisia for 2011-2013 in support of suitable reform efforts. G8 members are already in a position to mobilise substantial bilateral support to scale-up this effort.” It is unclear whether specific conditions will be attached to the pledged multilateral assistance.