The Carthage Investment Forum, a reference event in the Mediterranean area dedicated to FDI, will highlight through a rich program the strengths of the Tunisian Site and the opportunities it offers at a time when uncertainties in the global economy make international investors more demanding with respect to their potential locations.

The outbreak of the global crisis in late 2008 showed the capacity of Tunisia to face external shocks as well as its willingness to maintain and boost investment, with a specific attention to foreign investment already established in Tunisia.Thus various governmental measures contributed to support different activities namely exporting businesses, proving that Tunisia is not only willing to attract new investment, but is also careful about ensuring the best growth conditions for foreign businesses having already chosen the country.

In addition to the specific aspects contributing to the attractiveness of the site, the Forum will also focus in this edition on the legitimate ambition of Tunisia to position itself as a front-rank technology platform in the Euromed area. The performance registered in the fields of innovation & technology and human resources development as well as the actions undertaken by public authorities to support a dynamic policy of R & D will serve as a guide to debates and discussions that highlight the strengths of the Tunisian Site in activities where wealth creation is dependent on the combination of ideas, technologies and knowledge.

The introductory panel on the morning of June 4^th will present an overview of Tunisia’s rankings and notations granted by institutions and specialized international agencies. The credibility of these rankings constitutes a guarantee as for the performance achieved by Tunisia and reinforces its will to position itself in the short-list of international investors.

The second panel discussion will highlight the contribution of the human capital to the Tunisian strategy for greater penetration of knowledge in economic activities. This panel will present the advantageous business environment put in place in favour of innovation, drawing on the experience of technology parks established in Tunisia, true centres of excellence, where infrastructure is a catalyst for developing innovative projects and specific niches requiring intensive knowledge. The presentation of experiences of Tunisian and foreign operators will shed the light on the evolution registered at the level of technicity of certain outputs completely achieved in Tunisia.

During the 3^rd panel, offshoring will serve as case study analysis to assess the positive evolution that the technological environment is witnessing in Tunisia. The participants will be invited to discover the preliminary results of a survey about outsourcing services to Tunisia.

The second component of the Forum will give the opportunity to one-to-one meetings according to a matchmaking between foreign companies and their Tunisian counterparts thus facilitating the participation to the forum by providing access to concrete partnerships opportunities.

Through the organization of these networking sessions, FIPA-Tunisia and all its partners will try to optimize your visit to Tunisia.