gemuhope

TUNIS, June 3 (Xinhua) — Tunisia aims to lure 100 billion Tunisian dinars (67.1 billion U.S. dollars) by 2014 as part of a drive to bolster growth to cut the double digit jobless rate, the country\’s Development Minister said Thursday.

\”The value of investment is set at 100 billion dinars during the coming four years with 60 billion dinars private investment following the government\’s efforts to energize the role of private sector and to improve investment,\” Nouir Jouini said in remarks published in local daily La Presse web site.

\”We expect private investment to grow by 13 percent per year over the period, an ambitious target to help the country to lure higher investment,\” he added.

The north African country had drawn 68 billion dinars investment over the previous five years, according to the official data.

\”We see higher investment over the period as we need to invest more in technological businesses, industrial areas, vocational training and social development. In addition, we must strengthen investment in infrastructure, environment\’s protection and promotion of human resources,\” the minister said.

Tunisia hopes foreign investment will account for 26 percent of the country\’s GDP by 2014, up from 23.9 percent in 2009.

The country aims at reducing unemployment rate by attracting more flows into its economy and bolstering added-value activities to absorb 80,000 new job seekers entering the market each year.

Official unemployment rate stands at 14.7 percent and authorities hope it will fall to 10.3 percent in the coming decade. (1 U.S. dollar = 1.490 Tunisian dinar)