A ministerial conference on investment in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region took place in Tunis on Tuesday 4 October under the aegis of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), bringing together ministers of international co-operation, trade, investment and public governance. A final statement was published containing a raft of recommendations focusing on pressing ahead with reforms and improving the business and investment climate.
A joint EU-OECD programme to promote investment in the Mediterranean was launched at the conference. The four-year programme seeks to “support investment reforms, modernise investment policies and establish institutions to attract investors”, the OECD says.
Working in partnership with governments and institutions, the programme will undertake regional and national initiatives designed to put in place more robust and more coherent investment policies and strategies, the OECD says. It will aim to offer strategic responses to current challenges and to provide a framework for discussion on how to encourage growth, employment and greater regional and international integration.
The OECD says that the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) “is a diverse region whose development potential has yet to be fully realised”. Its “privileged geographic location” at the crossroads of Europe, Africa and Asia and its “young and increasingly educated population”, along with the “great potential in sectors such as renewable energies, manufacturing, tourism, and business development services” are reasons for investors to be attracted. “Over the past decades, MENA countries have implemented reforms to increase economic openness, diversification and private sector development”, the OECD states. (Original version in French by Fathi B’Chir)