La Presse: EIB keen on working closer with Maghreban private sectors

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is opening two offices in the Tunisian and Moroccan capital cities to be able to work closer with the private sectors of the two Maghreban states, a story run Wednesday by the economic supplement of the Tunisian "La Presse" Newspaper said.

La Presse, which said that the EIB Tunis office will open on December 10th and the Rabat office in 2005, added the European bank will no longer need the authorization of the State to proceed to granting loans in the two countries.

The financial support the bank is intending to make in the two Maghreban countries is in response to the need of Mediterranean nations to progressively integrate the projected Euro-Mediterranean free trade zone to be operational as of 2010, the newspaper said. The EIB lent Tunisia 395 million euros in 2003 as part of the FEMIP initiative (Euro-Mediterranean investment and partnership facility). Tunisia also borrowed 55 million euros for its electricity and natural gas company and 45 million euros for its transport society, as well as 35 million euros for a Bizert-based metal processing plant. Morocco got 194 million euros in 2003 from the EIB for, including 110 million for the « Société nationale des autoroutes ».

EIB loans are mostly given to the public sector of Mediterranean nations, but the bank is carrying out a new partnership strategy between the public and private sectors in Europe and in the Mediterranean, according to the newspaper.