Wednesday 25th March, 8 :30 – 11 :00

Room I 210 – I 211, Bloc Informatique, Faculté de Sciences

 

The new Tunisian parliament is going to discuss a bill that strives to promote public – private partnerships (PPPs) – that is the participation of private capital, local and foreign – in the implementation of all kinds of development projects. It is one of the conditions set by donors to the lending of additional credits to Tunisia. PPPs are very trendy at the international level because they are supposed to compensate the financial shortcomings of Southern countries. But is it up to the private sector to ensure essential State’s functions, among which the delivering of public goods like drinkable water, or basic services like vocational training and health? Isn’t the injection of private capital mainly meant to open up new markets for multinational corporations from the North? Who has to bear the risks bound to the failure of a project? Do all sectors need to be open or do limits need to be set? Experiences up to date are ambiguous and the private sector has not rushed into PPPs. The workshop will discuss this hot topic in Tunisia, in the Arab region and beyond.

 

 

Peter Niggli, Alliance Sud (Switzerland)

Ziad Abdul Samad, Arab NGO Network for Development (Lebanon)

Mansour Cherni, Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT) (Tunisia)

Does Vandousselaere, Habi Center (Egypt)

Mark Moreno Pascual, IBON (Philippines)

 

 

Isolda Agazzi, Alliance Sud

 

Interpretation : French/English/Arabic