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Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani

TUNIS. – Qatar will give $1,25 billion in aid to Tunisia to help the North African country’s struggling economy, the Emir of Qatar told an investment conference in Tunis yesterday.Qatar and France are the main sponsors of the conference, where Tunisia is seeking to reverse a drop in foreign investment since its 2011 uprising.

Turkey will also deposit a $100 million zero interest loan in Tunisia’s central bank to support the North African country’s economy, Turkey’s deputy prime minister said yesterday.

The loan was announced at an investment conference in Tunis where Western and regional partners have been offering financial backing.

Nearly six years after its Arab Spring revolution, Tunisia hopes the meeting will help it confront challenges including high unemployment, low growth and a tourism sector hammered by jihadist attacks.

The two-day “Tunisia 2020” conference aims to put the North African nation “back on the investment map of the Mediterranean”, officials said.

“Tunisia faces exceptional circumstances and needs exceptional support,” said President Beji Caid Essebsi.

“The success of the democratic project in Tunisia . . . serves the interests of the region and can help strengthen security and stability regionally and globally,” he said.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani (pictured) said the pledged $1,25 billion would “support the Tunisian economy and strengthen its process of development”, without giving further details.

“In Tunisia, we face a people who decided to build their country based on plurality, dignity and human freedom,” Sheikh Tamim said.

“Will we help them so that the experience succeeds, or will we watch them face the difficulties alone?”

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the French Development Agency (AFD) would invest “at least 250 million euros ($265 million) every year” in Tunisia, a former French colony.

That is on top of an aid package France announced last year to pump a billion euros ($1,06 billion) into the Tunisian economy by 2020.

“We want to go further,” Valls said, adding that France has “duty and a responsibility” to support Tunisia and called on Europe to “live up to expectations”.

Despite avoiding the violence that has rocked other countries in the region since the Arab Spring revolutions, Tunisia has struggled to relaunch its economy. – AFP/Reuters.