Provisional figures for 2008 indicate that incoming and outgoing trade between Tunisia and Malta stood at 13 million euros, representing a 100 per cent increase over both the import and export data for 2004 said Foreign Affairs Minister Tonio Borg yesterday.

He was speaking at the seminar ‘Doing Business with Tunisia’ at the Malta Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry.

While explaining that a number of Maltese companies had already been successfully involved with their Tunisian counterparts in various sectors including the leisure, hospitality, banking and textile industries, he described the visit to Malta by a Tunisian business delegation as “a step in the right direction”.

However, he added that commercial relations between the two countries were still below their potential and could be further developed despite having been expanded in recent years.

The setting up of joint ventures between Malta and Tunisia in fields including the agro food industry, logistics, tourism and cruise liner industry, education, financial services, maritime activities, aviation and aviation engineering, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, electronics and information technology, software industries and business consultancy would certainly be a win-win-win situation in which further cooperation could be fostered.

Areas such as infrastructural and other construction works, e-business, e-government and issues relating to customs modernisation and product standardization could also be dealt with in a joint manner.

Meanwhile though, the envisaged establishment of the Maltese-Tunisian Business Council on which talks to set up such a council took place earlier yesterday, was to help better exploit such opportunities.

Tunisia was the first Euromed country to fully implement the first Euro-Mediterranean Association Agreement which came into effect in January 2008. The further liberalisation of tariff dismantling in the area of processed agricultural products, and the on-going negotiations on the liberalisation of trade in services was described by Dr Borg as positive steps. However, the preferential access to the enlarged EU market through the Euromed Association Agreements alone, could not guarantee larger inflows of foreign investment in the Mediterranean nor would it automatically render the region more competitive, Dr Borg said.

Malta, because of its geographical position, political history and culture always had a direct interest in the Mediterranean region. Collobarotion was further enhanced by Malta’s accession of the EU as Malta’s dual characteristics of being European and Mediterranean gave it a unique position to act as a promoter to further links between the EU and the Mediterranean countries and to bridge the north/south divide.

Prior to the seminar, Dr Borg opened the 7th session of

the Maltese-Tunisian Mixed Commission, a mechanism in which issues of bilateral importance are discussed.

Dr Borg explained that Malta initiated the process of the EU-League of Arab States dialogue which led to the EU-Arab League Ministerial Meeting held in Malta in February 2008. It was natural, he added, that the EU should strive to intensify its dialogue with the Arab world. In line with this strong sense of political commitment and direction, he explained how Malta was to host an EU-LAS Liaison Office, which was to contribute for the promotion of a higher level of the much needed inter-regional political dialogue and understanding.