Tunisian PM meets AUC chairwoman

The creation of an African statistics institute and an African intellectual property organisation to be based in Tunis were the focus of a meeting held on Saturday, between Prime Minister Ali Larayedh and African Union Commission (AUC) Chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Tunisia Press Agency (TAP) reported. At the end of the meeting, the African official told the media that AUC is willing to support Tunisia in its democratic transition process. She spoke of her participation in a round table held on Friday in Tunis, by the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), on funding infrastructure in Africa so that it would be a prosperous, integrated and peaceful continent by 2063. “During the meeting, we have set a number of priorities including development of human resources in Africa, boosting investment and culture and investment in the human capital, notably women and youth, and reinforcement of energy production”, she indicated. She added that these infrastructure projects would be presented on January to African Presidents during the Summit of the African Heads of State and Government. Dlamini-Zuma pointed to the difficulty of communication between several African countries due to the lack of air and sea links. “Each year, we need 90 billion dollars to achieve these infrastructure projects. We have only 45 billion dollars now. It was agreed during the Tunis meeting to create a fund to collect the necessary resources,” she added.