Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi meets with businessmen at the Council of Saudi Chambers headquarters in Riyadh on Wednesday.

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi has called for increased Saudi investments to strengthen the bilateral economic ties.

He made the statement during his meeting with top Saudi and Tunisian businessmen at the Council of Saudi Chambers (CSC) headquarters here Wednesday.

He expressed the view that the level of bilateral economic ties was unsatisfactory as it was low and so could be expanded.

Tunisia needs investments, especially from Saudis and other Arabs, he said, adding that the investment climate in his country is becoming favorable by the day. The event was attended by Tunisian Finance Minister Saleem Shakir and Abdulrahman Al-Zamil chairman of CSC and Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry and a large number of Saudi and Tunisian businessmen, mostly members of the Saudi Tunisian Business Council (STBC) at the CSC.

Some Saudi businessmen spoke in the meeting and narrated their experiences in their Tunisian investments in the 1970s and 1980s.

They said they were enthusiastic about investing in Tunisia since its potential is huge and it could become a world hub in several fields, and asked for removal of certain obstacles that came in the way of smooth flow of their investments.

Saudi investments in Tunisia are not new, Sulaiman Al-Auyairi, chairman of the Saudi side of STBC, said and cited the achievements of prominent Saudi businessman Saleh Kamil who transformed Tunisia into a touristic landmark and its capital an attractive city.

“Saudis now can make massive investments like establishing a world-class tourism academy for supplying Tunisian and Arab tourism establishments with top professionals and constructing a world-class medical tourism facility that can attract not only Arabs and Africans but also Europeans and north Americans for treatment and relaxation. But that needs some bureaucratic hurdles to be removed,” he said.

Abdul Muhsen Al-Hokair, a Saudi investor and honorary president of the Al Hokair Group for Development and Entertainment, said he has been investing in Tunisia for decades, “but the Tunisian dinar continues to pose a problem. So, the status of Tunisian dinar needs to be looked into if more investments have to flow from Saudis,” he added.

Earlier, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) President Ahmed Mohammed Ali met with Tunisian Minister of Finance Salim Shaker in Riyadh on Tuesday .

During the meeting, an agreement worth $200 million was signed between the IDB and Tunisian Company for Electricity and Gas for the construction of a power project in Monragia, Tunisia.

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