KSA + Tunisia partner on agritech + water security: Saudi Arabia’s government signed seven MoUs with its Tunisian counterpart aimed at strengthening knowledge transfer and cooperation in the agricultural research, water security, environmental protection, and meteorology fronts during a high level meeting in Tunis, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday. The meetings were attended by the kingdom’s ministers of industry and mineral resources, finance, and economy and planning.

And there’s more cooperation to come: Tunisia expects to bring “major joint investment projects” to the table by 1H 2024 in a bid to attract Saudi developers to its water, agri-foods, and environmental protection industries, TAP reports, citing comments made by Tunisia's representative for the Tunisian-Saudi Business Council Mohamed Kooli on Wednesday.

REMEMBER- Climate-induced drought is taking a toll on Tunisia’s agri sector and economy: Months of drought and intense heat waves in Tunisia over the last years led the North African country to call for the establishment of a joint program to alleviate the impact of climate change on economic development. The World Bank forecasts 71% of climate-related GDP losses in Tunisia by 2050 will be attributable to water shortages, noting inaction to shore up water supplies and step up its flooding and coastal protections could drop the country’s GDP up to 3.4% — translating to USD 1.8 bn annually — by 2030.

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