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Saudi Arabia, Tunisia Sign 7 MoUs in Various Fields

The Tunisian-Saudi Investment and Partnership Forum kicked off Wednesday in Tunis. (Tunisian Businessmen website)
The Tunisian-Saudi Investment and Partnership Forum kicked off Wednesday in Tunis. (Tunisian Businessmen website)
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Saudi Arabia, Tunisia Sign 7 MoUs in Various Fields

The Tunisian-Saudi Investment and Partnership Forum kicked off Wednesday in Tunis. (Tunisian Businessmen website)
The Tunisian-Saudi Investment and Partnership Forum kicked off Wednesday in Tunis. (Tunisian Businessmen website)

The Tunisian-Saudi Investment and Partnership Forum kicked off Wednesday at the Tunisian Union of Industry, Commerce, and Crafts (UTICA) headquarters in Tunis.

Over 100 Saudi businessmen and government officials from both countries were present.

The event is designed to scale up partnerships between businesses.

This forum is being held along with the 11th session of the Tunisian-Saudi Joint Committee meeting.

Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources Bandar Ibrahim Alkhorayef signed seven memoranda of understanding with Tunisian Interim Minister of Economy and Planning Sihem Boughdiri Nemsia on the sidelines of the 11th session of the Committee meeting.

The MoUs, which aim at enhancing Saudi-Tunisian cooperation in various fields, were signed in the presence of the Kingdom’s Ambassador to Tunisia, Dr. Abdulaziz bin Ali Al-Saqr.

Two of the MoUs were about agricultural scientific research and environment protection between the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water, and Agriculture and the Tunisian Ministry of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, as well as the Ministry of Environment.

Another MoU was on industrial cooperation between the Saudi Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources and the Tunisian Ministry of Industry and Energy. Alkhorayef and Nemsia also signed an MoU in tourism between their two countries.

In labor, another MoU was also signed between the Saudi Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development and Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment of Tunisia, along with another one in climate and meteorology between the Saudi National Center for Meteorology and its counterpart of Tunisia.

The Saudi non-oil exports to Tunisia during the third quarter of 2023 amounted to SAR513.42 million, with chemicals, polymers, packaging, and building materials being the most products the Kingdom has exported to Tunisia, while the volume of Saudi non-oil imports from Tunisia reached SAR206.59 million, topped by food products and textiles, heavy machinery and electronics.

The Saudi Industrial Development Fund’s contribution to financing joint projects in Tunisia amounted to SAR3.8 million, the value of the contribution to financing one project.

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Business

Oil Prices Ease as Markets Weigh China Stimulus Hopes

FILE - Pump jacks extract oil from beneath the ground in North Dakota, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
FILE - Pump jacks extract oil from beneath the ground in North Dakota, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
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Oil Prices Ease as Markets Weigh China Stimulus Hopes

FILE - Pump jacks extract oil from beneath the ground in North Dakota, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
FILE - Pump jacks extract oil from beneath the ground in North Dakota, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)

Oil edged lower on Thursday in light holiday trade as the dollar's strength offset hopes for additional fiscal stimulus in China, the world's biggest oil importer.

Brent crude futures settled down 32 cents, or 0.43%, at $73.26 a barrel. US West Texas Intermediate crude closed at $69.62, down 0.68%, or 48 cents, from Tuesday's pre-Christmas settlement.

Chinese authorities have agreed to issue 3 trillion yuan ($411 billion) worth of special treasury bonds next year, Reuters reported on Tuesday, citing two sources, as Beijing ramps up fiscal stimulus to revive a faltering economy.

"Injecting a stimulus into a nation's economy creates increased demand, and increased demand pushes prices higher," said Tim Snyder, chief economist at Matador Economics, Reuters reported.

The World Bank on Thursday raised its forecast for China's economic growth in 2024 and 2025, but warned that subdued household and business confidence, along with headwinds in the property sector, would keep weighing it down next year.

The US dollar continued to edge up higher after hitting a milestone last week. A stronger dollar makes oil more expensive for holders of other currencies.

The latest weekly report on US inventories, from the American Petroleum Institute industry group, showed crude stocks fell last week by 3.2 million barrels, market sources said on Tuesday.

Traders will be waiting to see if the official inventory report from the Energy Information Administration confirms the decline. The EIA data is due at 1 p.m. EST (1800 GMT) on Friday, later than normal because of the Christmas holiday.

Analysts in a Reuters poll expect crude inventories fell by about 1.9 million barrels in the week to Dec. 20, while gasoline and distillate inventories are seen falling by 1.1 million barrels and 0.3 million barrels respectively.

Elsewhere, southbound traffic in Turkey's Bosphorus Strait was set to resume on Thursday, having been halted earlier in the day after a tanker suffered an engine failure, shipping agent Tribeca said.