Tunisia for the Blue Economy

Tunisia is ready to co-chair, in 2020, together with Italy, the WestMed initiative, for the sustainable development of the Blue Economy in the western Mediterranean. And what was stated by Samir Taieb, Minister for Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries in Tunisia, during the second ministerial conference of the WestMed initiative held on 3 December in Algeria.

According to Taieb, the ministerial conference, chaired by France and Algeria, in collaboration with the European Commission and the Union for the Mediterranean (UpM) is an opportunity to evaluate the results of the actions undertaken and identify the final meetings to face the challenges of the countries Western Mediterranean and regional services.

The ministerial meeting was preceded by the stakeholder conference on the WestMed initiative, which saw the presence of around 200 experts with the aim of developing concrete and efficient projects in the Mediterranean region.

The participation of ministers was an opportunity to discuss opportunities for bilateral cooperation with Algeria in the areas of agriculture, fisheries, maritime transport, tourism and renewable energy.

The West Med initiative, launched in April 2017, is an initiative for the sustainable development of the blue economy in the western Mediterranean region. It groups together, Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Libya, Malta, Morocco, Mauritania, Portugal and Tunisia around three main common objectives: a safer maritime space, a secure, smart and resilient blue economy by 2022 and better governance of the sea.