Tunisia has officially joined the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), affirmed the country minister of Development, Investment, and International Cooperation Zied Ladhari. “The AIIB approved the accession of Tunisia on April 22,” Ladhari said in a statement. “This would allow Tunisia to receive funding for many development projects, particularly in the areas of infrastructure, transport, renewable energy, and water resources,” he explained. During his visit to China in February, Ladhari formally requested the membership of the financial institution for his country. He said AIIB, established in 2014, has funded $7.5 billion worth development projects since its official launch in 2016, he said. The AIIB is a multilateral development bank, which aims to improve socio-economic conditions in the Asia-Pacific region. Starting operations in January 2016, it has funded $7.5 billion worth development projects. It provides important funding for the Tunisian economy, which looks for foreign investments in a number of major government projects presented by Tunisia in several successive economic forums such as Tunisia’s International Investments Conference 2020. During a discussion on 2019’s state budget, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed announced the launch of four major government projects in the framework of public-private partnership. These projects include a power station in Skhira (central-eastern Tunisia), desalination plants in several areas overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, and waste treatment plants in the cities of Gabes, Sousse and Bizerte. Other projects are concerned with the infrastructure, of which the AIIB is specialized. The Finance Law for the current year predicted the proposed development expenditures to amount to 6.15 billion Tunisian dinars (about two billion dollars), compared to 5.89 billion dinars in 2018.