Reported agricultural investment up 10% to August

Reported agricultural investments posted a 10% increase in the eight first eight months of 2012, reaching nearly 3,999 declarations, with a value of 378.798 million dinars (MTD). The rate of financing agricultural investments by banks went down by 17.4% in 2012 and fell 21.2% in 2011, the Agricultural Investment Promotion Agency (APIA) indicated in its newsletter of August 2012. To late August, Committees granting benefits to national and regional plans had approved 2,728 investment operations with a total value of 249.6 MTD against 2,671 investment operations in 2011 (nearly 254.5 MTD). Some 71 land loans were granted for a value of 4.5 MTD. According to the same source, the approved investments will help create 3,249 permanent jobs, including 180 for university graduates, against 3,112 jobs in the same period last year. The Governorates of Mahdia, Kasserine and Sidi Bouzid topped the list in terms of reported investment volumes with 27.6 MTD, 22.8 MTD and 21.5 MTD, respectively. As regards sectoral breakdown, the agricultural sector comes first with 152.5 MTD followed by services (58.6 MTD), aquaculture (15.3 MTD) and fisheries (13.2 MTD). Investment made by young entrepreneurs to the end of August 2012 posted a 8.1% growth, compared with 2011, reaching 34.6 MTD. Moreover, investment reported by Tunisians living abroad reached 5.5 MTD, up 21%. This is the same for investments made by companies with foreign capital which reached 3.7 MTD (compared to 2011).