The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is ready to inject investments worth 500 million U.S. dollars to promote the Tunisian economy, said Mouayed Makhlouf, IFC Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, on Tuesday.

On the sidelines of the International Forum on Public-Private Partnership held in Tunis, Mr. Makhlouf said that IFC, a subsidiary of the World Bank, is interested in all economic sectors offering employment opportunities.

"The main challenge is to create employment potential in Tunisia in addition to accelerating the pace of economic growth," he said.

According to him, "the public-private partnership is still below expectations in some countries of the MENA zone (...), so it is important to boost development in these countries with high unemployment rate."

On the sidelines of this forum, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Tunisian Ministry of Development, Investment and International Cooperation and the General Authority of Public/Private Partnership on the Tunisian side and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

As part of this agreement, the project will be financed by the Korea-Africa Economic Cooperation Fund managed by the AfDB.

With the participation of 1,200 economic actors, including 250 international donors, the International Forum on Public-Private Partnership will review about 33 projects in various areas related to development.