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18:31 GMT
(With photos) TUNIS, Nov 8 (KUNA) -- The upcoming Arab economic summit to be held in Kuwait would hopefully set a new unique brand of partnership amongst Arab states, said a Tunisian Minister on Saturday.
Minister of Development and International Cooperation Mohamed Nouri Jouini answered a KUNA question during a press conference that the January summit in Kuwait would set new pillars for economic and social development in the Arab world, affirming that his country would provide vital input to the meeting that is going to serve Arab interests.
"This a great chance for development and we should benefit from it," stressed Jouini, revealing that Kuwait was among the first Arab states to invest in Egypt.
He indicated that Tunisia was looking forward for increasing commercial exchange with Arab countries namely Kuwait, saying that Arab-Tunisia commercial exchange needed to be boosted in the near future. Tunisia's foreign trade is at about TND 60 billion (about USD 50 billion).
On his hopes for the Arab summit in Kuwait, Jouini said that he was very eager to seek resolutions that would increase inter-Arab cooperation in all aspects, adding that the summit would surely look into means to diversify Arab economic coordination.
"Tunisia is eager to boost relations with fellow Arab markets," he said.
Exchange of scientific teams and researches during the upcoming event is also vital, affirmed Jouini, saying that Arabs were better off uniting efforts on these issues.
Regarding the impact of the global credict crisis on the Arab business scene here, Jouini said it was too early to evaluate the impact, affirming that Tunisia was following the issue and would back all business including Arab ones.
He stated that the global financial crisis would not affect the Tunisian monetary and banking sectors, but stressed it was vital to follow on investments between Tunisia and EU which represented about 75 percent of the country's foreign investments. (end) nm.gta KUNA 082131 Nov 08NNNN