TUNIS - Developments and the scope of the world financial crisis, climate change and great changes in the Maghreb region were the major themes discussed by participants in the Sixth International Symposium of the El Manar University which started on Monday in Hammamet.
The three-day symposium is organised by the Tunis Faculty of Economics and Management, jointly with the Association of Tunisian Economists.
Participants --Tunisian and foreign researchers and specialists-- are to tackle, in particular, the issue of interaction with the financial crisis, the economic crisis and climate change.
Attendees stressed their effects which have come to recall the volatility of markets and fragility of developing economies, especially the Maghreb countries'.
Opening the works of the symposium, Secretary of State in charge of External Trade Chokri Mamoghli stressed Tunisia's keenness, as part of the 2009-2014 presidential programme, to further promote the services sector, given its contribution to guarantee added value and its high employability, particularly for university graduates.
He underlined, in this regard, that the exports sector is the driving engine of growth, calling to further diversify Tunisia's markets in Africa and the Arab world, and to strengthen Tunisian products' position on the traditional European market.
Mr. Jurgen Teheres, representative of the Hanns Seidel Foundation addressed, in turn, the issue of climate change, stressing the need to mainstream the concept of sustainable development in the adopted economic policies and seek to guarantee interaction between the economic and social aspects and limit the impact of climate change.
According to Mr. Dirik Buda, representing the European Commission Delegation in Tunis, it is necessary to set up a qualitative and integrated development process that would certainly create more jobs and guarantee social development.
The first Maghreb doctoral college which will start during this session will also provide researchers with the opportunity to present their works before prominent specialised professors.
© Agence Tunis Afrique Presse 2010
