Tunis: The Assembly of People's Representatives rejected a draft law approving a headquarters agreement between the Government of the Republic of Tunisia and the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) to open a QFFD office in Tunisia during a plenary session on Tuesday, after it failed to receive an absolute majority of votes. 51 MPs voted in favour of the bill, 39 MPs voted against it and 25 MPs abstained. The session was attended by Finance Minister Sihem Boughdiri Nemsia, who stressed that the law in no way affects Tunisia's national sovereignty, adding that it will boost investment and development projects. In her answers to MPs' questions, Nemsia stressed that Tunisia welcomes development projects and that the government, which prepared the 2024 Finance Law, wants to attract investment and promote development and has no other choice, especially in view of the desire to achieve higher growth rates. She added that the bill did not contain any provisions related to the abandonment of the principle of nationa l sovereignty. Rather, it contains "provisions that preserve the country's sovereignty and national choice". She noted that the choice of projects to be financed by the fund is up to the Tunisian state, and that the country office will take into account the Tunisian side's comments on the projects, as well as the Qatari staff's obligation to respect the regulations in force in Tunisia. Nemsia pointed out that Tunisia has already ratified several headquarters agreements, such as the headquarters agreement with the Sahel and Sahara Observatory and the headquarters agreement with the Arab Organisation for Communication Technologies, the Regional Centre for Project Services and the Arab Accreditation Agency. Tunisia has bilateral financial cooperation agreements with the African Development Bank, the French Development Agency, the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the German Agency for International Cooperation. Source: Agence Tunis Afrique Presse
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