The review of the progress of infrastructure projects within the framework of the Five-Year Development Plan 2016-2020 and the projects presented at the Tunisia 2020 international investment conference were at the centre of the working session held on Tuesday, under the chairmanship of Minister of Development, Investment and International Co-operation Mohamed Fadhel Abdelkefi and Minister of Public Works, Housing and Spatial Planning Mohamed Salah Arfaoui.

The meeting also focused on strengthening co-ordination between the two sides, particularly with regard to cooperation with regional and international financial institutions, in order to accelerate the implementation of national and regional projects to be carried out through external funding.

The data presented on this occasion revealed that "the public projects to be carried out in infrastructure during the five-year development plan 2016-2020 have doubled compared to the previous stage.

These projects have already been launched since 2016, with investments estimated at 3.4 billion dinars. The second tranche is expected to start at the end of 2017 at a cost of 4.7 billion dinars, whereas the third tranche, costing 3.6 billion dinars, will be carried out at the beginning of 2019.

The projects mainly concern the construction of the first phase of the central motorway linking Tunis to Jelma and the road linking Tataouine to the Sfax / Gabes motorway and the development of 675 km (km) of classified roads in different governorates of the country.

There is also the development of 700 km of classified roads and 750 km of roads, to protect certain cities against floods (Manouba, Cité Ezouhour, Gabès, Grand Tunis ...) and to carry out the second phase of the social housing project and the working-class districts development programme in all governorates.

The progress of the preparation of studies specific to projects presented at the international conference Tunisia 2020 was examined during this working session.

The two ministers agreed to schedule periodic meetings every month and a half to ensure project monitoring

source: TAP