TUNISIA (AA) - July 17, 2012 - Turkish Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz has said, "economic development is not only about numbers yet it is about improving the living conditions and the quality of the social life."
Speaking at "African Economic Outlook - Promoting Youth Employment", a conference organized by the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Tunisia, Turkish minister stated, "We went through extensive development projects and linked women, disabled and the rest of all segments of society into the projects."
Tunisian Minister of Regional Development and Planning Jameleddine Gharbi said, "Tunisia has been facing the issues of unemployment for years. It will be hard to resolve it in a short period of time however as a ministry we are working hard to get rid of unemployment in Tunisia."
He also added that the rate of unemployment between university graduates is high in Tunisia and said that the regime before the revolution never made an effort for sorting unemployment out.
Tunisian Minister Gharbi expressed that they would be holding joint projects with his Turkish counterpart in order to develop and improve the employment in Tunisia.
Bernardino Leon, EU's special envoy to the Southern Mediterranean, said, "Turkey is a model country for development and improvement projects. Support of the SME banking and small and medium sized enterprises was very important as part of a development project."
