Tunisia wants to re-establish relations with the World Bank within the framework of respect for its sovereignty and a win-win partnership, said the chairman of the finance committee in Parliament. He also pointed to some of his colleagues who would like to liquidate public companies through this institution, according to Webdo.
On Monday, December 14, the chairman of the finance committee of the Tunisian Assembly of People’s Representatives (ARP), Haykel Mekki, said MPs were calling on the World Bank to force Tunisia to privatize its state-owned enterprises. He spoke in a meeting with the Tunisian operations manager at the international institution, Tony Verheigen, the Webdo news site reported.
“Some deputies urge and call on the World Bank to continue implementing its policies through the sale and privatization of certain public institutions and consequently the weakening of the Tunisian state,” said Mekki.
Tunisia refuses a relationship of “colonizer and colonized”
In order to provide financial support to Tunisia, which is in a difficult situation due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic, Mr Verheigen called on the Tunisian government to accelerate the implementation of the reforms agreed in as part of the agreement concluded between the two parties in 2018.
In this capacity, Haykel Mekki recalled the nature of his country’s relations with the World Bank before its independence. He stressed that “we have always taken loans to build our schools, our factories, our hospitals, our infrastructure and the Tunisian state and we have always been responsible”, reports the electronic media Tuniscope.
In the same vein, the head of the finance committee called for the reestablishment of relations based on mutual respect for the interests of each of the parties. “We do not want a relationship between the colonizer and the colonized, but rather we want to preserve our traditional partnership based on a win-win friendship relationship,” he pleaded, according to the Web Manager Center news site.
Tunisia could turn to the BRICS
While calling on the head of the World Bank to work with the Tunisian government for the restoration of a “relationship of trust”, Mr. Mekki nevertheless noted that “there are new institutions which have no colonialist background such as the BRICS and others who propose to establish relations with Tunisia ”.
During the meeting at the ARP, Tony Verheigen notably emphasized the need to accelerate reforms in the financial sector, the digitization of services, the strengthening of the Public / Private Partnership (PPP) and the reform of companies. public.
He also recalled that the $ 945 million allocated by the World Bank to Tunisia has not yet been withdrawn. Thus, he proposed to the Tunisian government to proceed with their disbursement in order to strengthen investment in the country.
