The Saudi-Tunisian Joint Committee held its tenth session on Saturday and Sunday in Riyadh. The Saudi side was headed by His Excellency, Dr. Majid Bin Abdullah Al Qasabi, Minister of Commerce and Investment, while the Tunisian side was headed by H.E. Ziad Al Azari, Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation, attended as well by private sector representatives and officials from both countries.
This session is an embodiment of the historical brotherly ties existing between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Tunisia, and it is a confirmation for the implementation of the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and his brother Al Béji Kayed Al Sibsi, president of the Republic of Tunisia. This session reflects the two sides firm resolve to develop various aspects of cooperation, as well as creating an active and solidarity partnership between the two countries and peoples.
The heads of the two delegations expressed their satisfaction with the level of cooperation and brotherly relations between the two countries. They expressed their aspiration to develop and diversify such relations to include new fields of cooperation. High level of communication and visits had been achieved between the two countries within one year. This shows how strong and deep is the relation between both sides.
The Saudi-Tunisian sides signed joint cooperation agreements aimed at boosting the volume of trade and investment exchange between the two countries, besides following up the implementation of the recommendations agreed upon on the sidelines of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' recent visit to Tunisia. Both sides have agreed to support the private sector in both countries by setting up a road map that would increase the intra-investment between the two countries, especially In the pharmaceutical, food and mining sectors. Both sides discussed as well the bilateral partnerships between the two sides.
Both sides also stressed the necessity of intensifying the on-going efforts to increase the volume of trade exchanges, as well as boosting investment, and raising the level of technical cooperation by activating the cooperation mechanisms. The joint committee appreciated the signing of agreements between the two countries in the field of housing, construction and development during the work of this session. They agreed to render more efforts to implement the outstanding agreements and memorandum of understanding. At the end of this session, minutes of meeting was signed.
Notably, the volume of trade exchange between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Tunisia reached $ 309 million dollars during 2018, by an increase of 16% compared to 2017.