OREANDA-NEWS. October 30, 2012. KfW Entwicklungsbank officially opened its office in Tunis with a reception. "The population's expectations after the Jasmine Revolution are great," said Doris Kohn, Head of Department for Africa and the Middle East in KfW Entwicklungsbank on the occasion of the office opening. "We will support the Tunisian government in its efforts to advance the democratisation process and improve the living conditions of the people."

The reception at the opening was attended by representatives of KfW Entwicklungsbank from Germany as well as the State Secretary in the Tunisian Ministry of Cooperation, Alaya Bettaieb, additional representatives of the Tunisian government and partner institutions, and the German ambassador in Tunis, Jens Plotner. Since August 2012 the Office Director in Tunis has been Kristina Laarmann who brought with her years of experience as project manager in the water sector in Tunisia.

Head of Department Doris Kohn, Source: Firas Ben Khelifa

In his speech Ambassador Plotner emphasised the importance of development cooperation between the two countries: "The close and strategic relationship between Germany and Tunisia is evident in our economic cooperation and cultural exchange, which several high-ranking meetings at the government level recently highlighted."

State Secretary Bettaieb praised the several decades of good cooperation with Germany, not least in the context of financial cooperation through KfW. The Tunisian government welcomes the opening of the office in Tunis and offers every support in order to further expand and intensify cooperation.

KfW Entwicklungsbank Active on-site since the 1960s

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), KfW Entwicklungsbank has been active in Tunisia already since the beginning of the 1960s. The Tunisian partner receives support in the areas of irrigation, waste management, waste water disposal and drinking water supply, as well as environmental protection. Renewable energies and energy efficiency, climate protection and public transportation were added in the past few years. 1.4 billion euros have been committed in the form of loans and grants since the beginning of the cooperation. Last year alone, KfW Entwicklungsbank signed financing agreements with Tunisia amounting to over 120 million euros. At the same time the German federal government committed 91 million euros for new financial cooperation projects through KfW.

In June 2012 a first debt conversion agreement was signed for 30 million euros to benefit disadvantaged regions. Of that amount, 20 million euros are designated for a drinking water supply project of the state water supply utility SONEDE in several cities in central and southeast Tunisia. In addition, 10 million euros will be provided to finance another water sanitation project of the national sanitation agency ONAS. The debt conversion is a result of the German federal government's decision to convert part of the Tunisian debt in order to benefit sustainable projects in disadvantaged regions and in this way support the transformation process in Tunisia. Angela Merkel announced this decision on the occasion of the G8 summit in May 2011 in Deauville.