(TAP special correspondant Faten Barouni) – A new assistance programme for African countries, including Tunisia, to help create 25 million jobs during the next 10 years will be funded by the African Development Bank (AfDB), its President Akinwumi Adesina announced on Wednesday in Davos (Switzerland).

Tunisia, AfDB founding member, is on top of the countries to benefit from the AfDB’s assistance and investment, Adesina pointed out at the end of an in-camera conference with Prime Minister Youssef Chahed, African leaders and economic operators.

In a statement to the media at the end of the conference held under the theme: “The Development of the African agenda in light of the global economic situation,” as part of the World Economic Forum (Davos 2019) works, Adesine affirmed that he intends to visit Tunisia in March 2019 to inaugurate the AfDB North Africa regional headquarters.

The official affirmed the institution's willingness to achieve several investments in Tunisia, notably in the infrastructure, employment, social integration, development of financial market and macro-economic stability fields, to better attract investments.

The GDP’s growth in African countries reached an average of 4% in 2018, against forecasts of 4.1% in 2019, he said, pointing out that this rate varies from one country to anouther, exceeding 5% in 17 African countries, and between 3% and 5% in 21 countries, which reflects an upward trend and a stability in the continent.

The official laid emphasis on the progress achieved in the countries of the continent and the change taking place at the level of its economic landscape, recalling that investments worth $38.7 billion had been mobilised in less than 72 hours during the African Investment Conference in April 2018, which testifies to the interest lent by the world investors to the region.

For his part, Chahed highlighted Tunisia’s huge potential in human competences, pointing out the importance of this African meeting in reinforcing Tunisia’s position as a development platform of the triangular investment with Europe, America and Asia