The Tunisian-Algerian Economic Forum: A New Era of Regional Cooperation
The Tunisian-Algerian Economic Forum has shown what regional ambition can look like when it goes beyond mere slogans. The question now is whether this momentum will finally translate into concrete actions beyond conference rooms.
A Long-Standing Relationship
The relationship between Tunisia and Algeria is old, rich in history, and woven with political and human convergences. However, this forum in Tunis had something more. Beneath the official speeches, a sense of a particular moment emerged, where the two countries seemed to be transitioning from a declared friendship to a more organic and assumed integration.
When Professionals Get Involved
From the opening, Samir Majoul, President of the Tunisian Union of Industry, Commerce, and Handicrafts (UTICA), set the tone with the bold idea of a comprehensive free trade agreement that would eliminate barriers, smooth out obstacles, and unleash the productive forces on both sides of the border. In a world where blocks are being reshaped and dependencies are becoming fragile, this proposal had the resonance of a lucid bet.
A Resonating Echo
The idea found an immediate echo on both the Tunisian and Algerian sides, where it is known that complementarity could be a strength rather than just a slogan. The figures cited by Algerian Prime Minister Sifi Ghrieb reminded us of a reality often forgotten: exchanges are progressing, investments are growing, but the potential remains largely untapped.
Encouraging but Insufficient Progress
$2.3 billion in exchanges, a 12% jump, hundreds of Tunisian companies present in Algeria, and dozens of Tunisian projects already registered. While this is encouraging, it is also insufficient considering the respective economies, resources, and geographical proximity. It's as if the relationship is advancing but with measured, cautious steps.
Lifting the Veil of Restraint
This forum had the merit of lifting this veil of restraint. The sectors mentioned, such as energy, renewables, agri-food, pharmacology, automotive components, and cybersecurity, outline the contours of a new generation of cooperation. We are no longer just talking about daily commerce but about the architecture of a future where industries respond to each other across the border, where value chains no longer stop at border posts, and where border areas cease to be margins and become poles.
A Will for Long-Term Cooperation
The speech by the Head of Government, Sarra Zaâfrani Zenzri, continued this movement. There was a rare will in her words: to inscribe this relationship into a long-term project, a thought-out project, a Tunisia 2035 that is not built in isolation or passive dependence but in a game of assumed interdependence.
Towards a Transborder Ecosystem
And then, there were the seven agreements signed between Tunisian and Algerian companies. These agreements, taken individually, may seem modest, but together they tell a story of dynamics: technical textiles meeting plastics, foundries meeting industrial maintenance, technologies intersecting, distribution expanding, and automotive components synchronizing. We begin to glimpse what could be, if the will persists, a form of transborder ecosystem.
A Geostrategic Lever
In the air, there was also the idea of going further, thinking in a triangle with Libya, projecting into Africa, and prolonging a convergence that only asks to become a geostrategic lever in a region often waiting for itself. And one felt that for once, this idea was not a pious wish but a concrete possibility, nourished by projects already underway in energy, transport, and water.
From Announcements to Actions
However, a forum does not make a policy, and a speech does not transform an economy. The strength of announcements will not be measured by their fanfare but by their persistence. Everything now depends on the ability to follow through, to avoid this momentum dissipating like so many others before it.
Real Expectations
The expectation is real, almost palpable: companies want simplified procedures, less burdensome borders, and more fluid financing. Governments must offer calendars, monitoring mechanisms, and readable rules. Populations, meanwhile, hope for jobs, projects, and tangible benefits.
A Turning Point
This forum, in its density and fervor, has awakened the possibility of a turning point. Something vibrated, something seemed to align between political visions, economic interests, and industrial realities. This is not frequent, and it deserves to be highlighted. Tunisians and Algerians know that history has given them a rare proximity; the challenge now is to make it an economic, productive, and structural proximity as well.
Promises, Agreements, and Visions
The promises are there. The agreements exist. The visions meet. But the essential remains to be written. And perhaps this is what gives this forum its singular importance: the impression that, for the first time in a long time, the two countries are no longer just looking at what they have been but at what they could achieve together and what they could become.
