Education News: Top Stories

Tunisia sets good example in education

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10 May 2013

Pretoria - Tunisia has set a good precedent for developing countries by meeting its Millennium Development Goal (MDG) for education, says Trade and Industry (dti) Deputy Minister Elizabeth Thabethe.

The MDG for education is to ensure that by 2015, the majority of children all over the world are able to access and complete a full course of primary schooling.

The deputy minister also praised the North African country for investing in its people.

Thabethe is in Tunisia where she is leading a South Africa business delegation for an Outward Selling Mission. The objective of the mission is to create market access for South African value-added products and services into new markets.

'Tunisia is one of the countries with a highly skilled workforce and advanced Information and Communication Technology (ICT). I commend the country for having invested heavily in its people as its human resource,' said Thabethe, who was speaking at the South Africa-Tunisia Business Forum on Thursday.

The forum was attended by over 100 businesspeople from Tunisia and South Africa.

She also lauded the South African and Tunisian governments for their commitment to strengthening their bilateral economic relations by negotiating and agreeing to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Economic Cooperation.

'We should also fast track the implementation process of this MoU, as it is a very important framework which we will use as the basis for regular economic engagement between South Africa and Tunisia. The MoU will provide for the establishment of the Joint Trade and Investment Committee (JTIC),' said the deputy minister.

The JTIC would help the two governments to identify trade and investment opportunities, as well as address trade impediments that would encourage the business communities to take advantage of these initiatives.

The Tunisian Minister of Trade and Handicrafts, Abdelwaheb Maater, said the country wanted to diversify its trade and investment patterns.

'The Tunisian government wants to diversify their trade and investment patterns into developing countries in Southern Africa and Africa as a whole. Our presence here in this business forum indicates a need to increase our efforts to reach our targets in trading with the African continent,' said Maater.

Tunisia was ranked 114th in terms of South Africa's trading partners during the year 2012. For the period 2008 - 2012, exports to Tunisia totalled R486 million. The leading exports during the period were mineral products, vehicles and chemicals. Trade was in favour of South Africa with a surplus of R23 million.

The Outward Trade and Investment mission will conclude on Saturday, with site visits to some of Tunisia's business hubs.

The deputy minister's visit follows her Outward Selling Mission to Algeria earlier this week.

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