Through the launch of the U.S. Business Visa Program, AmCham Tunisia members will be able to request visa appointments for business travel to the United States. The U.S. Business Visa Program aims to further expand commercial ties between the United States and Tunisia by assisting AmCham members in developing deeper connections with their American business counterparts.
With gratitude to all of you. Happy New Year from the AmCham Tunisia Board members and Staff.
AmCham Tunisia & Tunisian Investment Authority (TIA) organized a Webinar on Prosper Africa on December 15th. About 86 participants from Tunisia as well as other African countries, and from the USA attended the event.
Speakers of this Webinar :
* Mr.Naceur Hidoussi, President AmCham Tunisia
* Mr. Beligh Ben Soltane, Chairman, Tunisia Investment Authority
* Ambassadeur Riadh Essid, Directeur Général Amérique-Asie-Océanie (DGAA)
* Mr.John Hansen, Senior Advisor for Transactions, Prosper Africa Executive Secretariat, Washington DC, USA
* Mrs. Rym Bedoui Ayari, VP, AmCham Tunisia, Moderator
The webinar featured a presentation of TIA services to support extensions and or new US investments in Tunisia. Amcham highlighted the importance of the Prosper Africa initiative for the US investment and trade flow in the country and the region. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs discussed the opportunities provided to US private sector in the continent’s free trade areas such as AfCFTA and pursuing negotiations on FTA.
Prosper Africa coordinator, John Hansan shared a presentation on the initiative (click on link).
Bellow how to submit your project:
Prosper Africa POC — ProsperAfrica@usaid.gov. Interested companies can use this email to submit Prosper Africa candidate projects, which goes to our expert team in Washington. Companies can cc Luis and me for awareness, but the Washington-based team is best-suited to evaluate proposals and respond to project questions.
Guidelines and information needed for submissions are included here: https://prosperafrica.dfc.gov/prosper-africa-inquiries/ General information on Prosper Africa and its programs is here: https://prosperafrica.dfc.gov/
INVEST IF Platform EOI — The purpose of this form is for Tunisian SMEs (or Tunisia-based U.S. SMEs) to express interest in receiving investment facilitation support or for other ecosystem players (investors, accelerators, etc.) to recommend SMEs to receive support. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfFoe-V67n-dQ50dx65RcIFrAESjM082uv2aoIbDls7s1mANQ/viewform
You are kindly invited to join us for a webinar on December 9th, 3pm to discuss about the impact of the US Post Election on the US / Tunisian relations:
Guest Speakers:
Join us for a session featuring a panel of experts that have been following the U.S. political debate, and will discuss the implications of the outcomes of the U.S. elections on U.S.-Africa policy. We introduce our speakers from Covington & Burling:
Join us for a virtual “Open Day” to learn more about the U.S. Exchange programs available for Tunisians. We will be LIVE on Facebook (fb.com/usembassytunis) on Sunday, November 8, starting at 10:00 AM. More information on our programs → https://go.usa.gov/x7WTx
The U.S. Embassy Cultural attachée spoke about the exchange programs provided by the embassy in Tunisia on Radio IFM. (video)
Looking to improve your e-commerce knowledge?
Join us for the “MENA E-commerce Entrepreneur Knowledge Series: E-commerce and COVID-19 Recovery for Small Businesses” from June 15 to July 2.
What is it?
Together with the World Bank and UPS, ITC is offering a series of webinars to support small business owners in the Middle East and North Africa to leverage e-commerce. We will offer:
All master webinars will have simultaneous translation into English, French and Arabic. For the deep-dive clinic webinars, only the discussion and Q&A will be in any of the three languages.
Who can participate?
The webinar series is open to every entrepreneur although the focus will be on e-commerce in the following countries from the MENA region: Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia.
How can you register?
To join the webinars, you will need to:
1. Register on ecomConnect.org, the e-commerce community engagement platform with a special focus on developing and least developed countries.
2. Join the group “We Fi Project in the MENA region” & register for the preferred webinars.
More information?
Check the attached programme or click here.
Tunisia, May 5th , 2020, As part of its continued support of Tunisia and its people, and as a sign of the long standing friendship between the people of Tunisia and the people of the USA, AmCham Tunisia, through its Board Members and Members, has donated more than 15 Million TND to the 1818 National Fund to fight the Covid-19 Pandemic.
Many other donations in kind have been given to hospitals (such as medical equipment, video conferencing equipment for the Ministry of health and Drones) as well as food for poor families.
The following companies have contributed to this effort: Abdennadher Group, CISCO, EY Tunisia, Hexabyte, Honeywell, Integration Objects, TELNET, Jansen, Philp Morris, STB and Cellcom.
Dear AmCham Member,
In the context of COVID 19 pandemia official measures, The Tunisian administration is allowing companies to seek on case by case basis an authorization to resume activities. Please find attached link below: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfn-LDmoVcugDApW_KHccJErZxs41xDlW4z2LwuNDG95gzilA/viewform
AmCham is currently speaking with authorities to monitor the situation and will be available to support our members with the procedure.
Please don’t hesitate to outreach to us if you need any assistance or have questions.
Best Regards,
AmCham Tunisia
As part of AmCham Tunisia commitment to safeguard our community while continuing to maintain an uninterrupted and high quality service to our members , we have implemented the following emergency measures:
1. Our teams have been placed on mandatory working from home operations and are equipped to provide their full services from home, to receive and process all your emails and all your calls on their mobile phones.
2. Face to face work related meetings have been replaced by videoconferencing and/or conference calls.
3. We have restricted all out of office visits unless evidenced as a necessity (to the extent feasible).
4. We continue to ensure to put in place best practice in business continuity measures while protecting our team members and our community as a priority.
In this delicate period, we invite you all to stay safe and take care of yourselves, your families and friends, and your communities, in the hope that the outcome of these difficult events will be a more interconnected and harmonious global society.
Please do not hesitate to share with us any concerns you have throughout this period and we will, as always, take all measures to ensure we accommodate to your concerns.
With best wishes,
Naceur Hidoussi
President, AmCham Tunisia
It is a shabby, miserable, pitiful and coward gesture that attacks the essential foundations of US-Tunisia cooperation.
This is not just an attack to American Embassy, but to all shared values of Freedom and Democracy . It is an attack to every Tunisian .
Together and united we do stand up , and remain strong against such cowardness.
We want to share all our grand sympathy and deepest support, to all embassy staff and tunisian police and guards .
Accelerating African Trade – The “Eco” of Liberalization
Africa, including the former French West African colonies, continues on promoting barrier free Pan African trade. Facilitating open trade and a common currency accelerates opportunities for the world’s fastest growing continent to prosper. Positive steps to increase African investment by releasing African reserves from the stewardship and use by French Treasury were announced this week by President Marcon. Simply put, as proposed, previously sequestered funds are now available for direct African investment. The proposed decommissioning of the French-linked West African CFA franc was also announced with the endorsement of the “Eco” as the replacement currency. One expected positive outcome of liberalization is continuation of promoting a common currency, opening pan -African trade and accelerating trade flows.
Africa Trade Alliances – The World’s Largest since the World Trade Organization
Parallel paths to promote African autonomy continue with regional trade alliances. Countering global trends towards nationalization, North Africa including Tunisia, increasingly unite as trade partners. The West African Economic and Monetary Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) minimize trade barriers and harmonize customs practices. English and French speaking Africa links formalized in March 2019 with the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – the world’s largest since the 1994 World Trade Organization. As perspective COMESA, similarly with its 21-nation membership serves 560 million people links Tunisia, Egypt and Madagascar improving the focus on Technology and Biotech developments.
Gateway into Global Markets – Tunisia
Boosting inter-regional and global trade frameworks is constructive of the continent. Unleashing Africa’s long-stymied economic potential strengthen supply chains and spread shared expertise is both aspirational and realistic. Increased Pan-African trade flows increasingly funneled into Europe and the United States from gateway countries like North Africa led by Tunisia, are irreversible. The Tunisian and other American Chamber of Commerce actions, guide export expansion, ratify opportunities for Pan African business and trade-linked profitably – gradually erasing the shadow of a colonial past.