 13 - 19 December 2000 |
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Good prospects for Malta, Tunisia relations The number of Maltese visiting Tunisia has increased 12-fold over the past 10 years. Speaking during an interview with The Business Times, Tunisian Ambassador, Abdessalem Hetira, said that during the past few years, bilateral co-operation between the two countries had developed significantly at various levels. "In the past few years Maltese people have started to know more specifically about Tunisia," he said. "In fact, from merely 700 in 1990, the number of Maltese visiting Tunisia has jumped to 12,000 in 1997 and has now stabilised at that level each year. We are happy that such direct contacts have positively influenced the perception that the Maltese used to have about my country." Mr Hetira also pointed out that concurrently, more Tunisian tourists are discovering Malta each year. "In fact, due to a substantial rise in Tunisia’s standard of living, an emerging middle class, representing 80% of Tunisia’s society, is more and more attracted by tourism abroad," he said. "As a result, the number of Tunisians visiting Malta, which has been around 3,000, is expected to more than double this year. We estimate the figure could even reach 9,000." Mr Hetira said that since establishing diplomatic relations in 1967, Tunisia and Malta have developed very good political ties which were encouraged by a number of convergent and very often similar views thanks to their moderate positions on regional and international issues of common interest. "People have become aware of the economic potentials and of business opportunities in both countries as well," he said. "In fact, with regards to economic relations, we are witnessing nowadays a very positive trend where economic operators from both countries, are showing signs of interest in developing strong business relations with each other. This positive trend has become evident during the past two years as the Embassy is receiving an increasing number of business information requests from both sides and organising more and more prospective business visits to Tunisia and to Malta." Mr Hetira cited, as an example, the recent opening in Tunisia of BOV representation office, which, he said, serves as an illustration of this new economic trend and will itself play an important role in promoting business and partnership opportunities. But he stressed that developing the relationships between two countries is a never-ending process, given the wide variety and complexity of fields of co-operation that could be sought out. "In our case, the steps taken so far have proved to be extremely significant since they demonstrated that win-win situations are attainable in various economic areas," he said. "We have also realised that much more can be achieved if we combine our efforts even further to make the most of business opportunities that are available between both countries." Mr Hetira added that convinced of these positive prospects, both governments have recently taken concrete steps to further encourage economic ties between the two countries, among which are the signing of two important agreements, a double taxation agreement and an investment promotion and protection agreement. Furthermore, Tunisia and Malta have agreed to establish a free zone area and discussions on this project will start very soon. Read full interview with Mr Hetira | ||||||
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