Vice Minister of Commerce Fu Ziying, head of Chinese government business delegation, arrived in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia on April 20.

On April 21, Vice Minister Fu Ziying held talks ，respectively, with Mehdi House, Tunisian Minister of Tourism and Trade, Jelloul Ayed, Tunisian Finance Minister, Radwan Nouaiser, Tunisian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and met with Tunisian Foreign Minister Mouldi Keffi.

Fu said that China and Tunisia have profound traditional friendship during talks with Mehdi, that Tunisia is an important economic and trade partner of China in Africa and the Arab world, and China would like to joint efforts with Tunisia to further expand bilateral trade. China would like to encourage competent businesses to invest in Tunisia, so as to promote economic development of Tunisia. Mehdi welcomed the visit of the Chinese delegation, and said that Tunisia is committed to economic development and improvement of investment environment, and that there is great potential for bilateral trade and economic cooperation, with great prospects for future cooperation, and the two countries should work together to achieve mutual complementarities.

Fu expressed that Tunisia enjoyed geographic advantages, with great potentials for development during talks with Jelloul. China would like to share its experience of reform and opening up for the past 30 years with Tunisia, and strengthen trade and economic cooperation with Tunisia, especially investment cooperation between enterprises. Jelloul hoped Chinese enterprises to invest in Tunisia, and to be active in cooperation, so as to facilitate the development of SMEs and poverty areas of Tunisia, and promote constructions of large-scale infrastructures in Tunisia.

Fu exchanged views with Nouaiser on such areas as economic and trade cooperation, and human resources development. The two parties signed an economic and technical cooperation agreement. According to the agreement, Chinese government is to provide RMB 40 million of free aid to the Tunisian government to fund projects to be agreed by the two sides, and hand-over certificate on US$ 2 million cash assistance for refugees in Tunisia-Lybia border areas.

Fu said, when met with Keffi, that since China and Tunisia treat each other on equal footing, integrity and friendship in the past 47 years since establishment of China-Tunisia diplomatic relations, and bilateral ties keep developing. China is willing to share its experience with Tunisia, strengthening bilateral economic and trade cooperation, and willing to provide assistance to the Tunisian within China’s ability. Keffi expressed his welcome to Fu and his delegation, and said that the two countries enjoyed a long-term friendship, and thanked the Chinese government for the assistance, the Tunisian side appreciates the achievements made by China since its reform and opening up, and hopes to learn China’s development experience.

(All information published on this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only.)