28 May 2020; MEMO: Al-Karama Coalition bloc in the Tunisian parliament announced the presentation of a legislative initiative calling for the cancellation of an investment agreement between Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), signed during the era of ousted president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.
Al-Karama Coalition (21 seats) revealed that the agreement, which was concluded by Ben Ali’s regime in 2007 with Dubai Holding, and which granted the company access to vast lands at a low price in order to build a modern city (the Mediterranean Gate project), is still suspended to date.
The parliamentary bloc disclosed that during Ben Ali’s era, 837 hectares of land suitable for construction were sold to Sama Dubai for a small price not exceeding one Tunisian dinar per metre.
Al-Karama Coalition explained that the Emirati company had pledged to build a modern city on the shores of the Mediterranean and fixed a ten-year work plan with an investment of $14 billion to complete the project, which was designated to provide 300,000 jobs.
