Tunisia expects chances from China to boost employment

TUNIS - Tunisia sees significant potential for cooperation with China to ease the alarming unemployment in the North African country, a Tunisia senior official said in a recent interview with Xinhua.

Tunisia will learn from China to boost employment, especially for the young people, Faouzi Abderrahmane, the minister of Vocational Training and Employment, told Xinhua.

According to Faouzi, the Tunisian unemployment rate has reached as high as 15.3 percent, an equivalent of 628,000.

"The cooperation between Tunisia and China could obviously develop in the fields of entrepreneurship, sciences, technology and trade," the minister noted.

In fact, the Tunisian authorities have established technical cooperation with foreign states, in order to open the horizons of young people beyond borders.

The data shows that the total number of Tunisians working abroad amounted to 17,701 by the end of 2017.

In addition, the Tunisian government have introduced specific program, such as the "Active Employment Policies" which serve about 80,000 beneficiaries annually, to redress the supply-demand relationship in the employment sector.

Nevertheless, Tunisian young people keep grumbling about the social situation and the slow economic recovery despite various employment programs initiated by the government.

"Chinese leaders have a sensitivity toward its African policy. Regarding Tunisia, China will make adequate plans for the interests and needs of both countries, with strategic visibility on this bilateral collaboration," Faouzi noted.

The state budget for 2018 allocated to the Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment is about 700 million dinars ($287 million), the majority of which will be injected into projects creating job opportunities.