The second Industrial Co-development Forum (FCI 2023) kicked off Tuesday in Tunis, with the participation of 150 Tunisian industrialists and a dozen French companies.
Some 130 B2B meetings involving Tunisian industrialists and French experts are on the agenda of the two-day event, North Africa Director of Business France Michel Bauza told TAP.
The Forum is jointly held by Business France office at the French embassy in Tunis and the French Fab, with the support of the Regional Economic Service and in partnership with Tunisian clusters.
The event will help bring together Tunisian industrialists and French companies offering innovative solutions in a bid to meet their needs and boost co-development between two countries and contribute to build up Tunisia’s industrial competence.
The Tunisian industry, which accounts for 1/4 of the GDP, has been strongly oriented towards Europe. for several years now as part of a near-sharing process.
“Today, this near-sharing process is gaining momentum with the increase of demand in Europe to find a close partner. Tunisian industrialists can address this challenge, hence the need to keep building up capacities by means of leveraging Industry 4.0 technologies,” he added.
Improvements need to be made, Bauza said referring to the challenges of social responsibility and decarbonisation which remain necessary to continue doing business with European customers. The latter are showing more interest in ecological impacts.
The first edition of the forum, he reminded, saw the participation of nine French companies; several partnership contracts were signed.
CEO of the Agency for the Promotion of Industry and Innovation (French: APII) Omar Bouzouada said “investment intentions” of French companies in the first five months of 2023 almost increased twofold compared to the same period last year.
This increase shows their trust in the Tunisian business climate and the sound industrial sector.
Tunisia remains attractive, particularly with reforms introduced in investment governance and in connection to the business climate, he added.
The morning session of the forum offered the opportunity to bring the experiences of French companies under spotlight ; the latter have teams and subsidiaries in the context of offshoring.
Focus was likewise placed on the Tunisian industrial sector, particularly industrial investment, the development of Industry 4.0, decarbonisation solutions and the challenges of human capital in the perspective of industrial co-development between the two shores of the Mediterranean.
Source: ZAWYA
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