Announcement of Thirteen Million Four Hundred Thousand Dollar Loan to Tunisia on September 15, 1983

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A.* Telephone: (202) 477-1234 BANK NEWS RELEASE NO. 84/13 Contact: Fawzi Rihane September 15, 1983 (202) 477-3651 TUNISIA TO USE $13.4 MILLION TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE LOAN FOR ITS MINING INDUSTRY Tunisia will use a $13.4 million loan for providing technical assistance to its mining industry, the World Bank announced today. The loan from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Develop- ment (IBRD) will help provide the funds needed to improve the efficiency of the Gafsa Phosphate Company (CPG), the country's largest mining company, to study the feasibility of exploiting new phosphate and potash deposits, and to improve the institutional framework for setting mining exploration policy. The mining sector is vital in several depressed regions of Tunisia as a source of employment. Nationally, the mining sector is second only in importance, after oil, to the country's commodity export trade. Mineral exports account for 10% of Tunisia's non-oil exports. The beneficiaries of the loan are the Gafsa Phosphate Company and the National Mining Office. Major benefits expected from the project are improved efficiency and expansion of the phosphate industry and the laying of the groundwork for the establishment of a potash industry, a potentially important new export industry. The Mining Technical Assistance Project will cost a total of $24.6 million. A mixed French credit of $3.1 million will finance part of the works for the potash component and a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Trade and Development Program will co-finance a feasibility study on a new phosphate mine. The loan from the IBRD is for 17 years, including four years of grace, at a variable rate of interest linked to the cost of IBRD borrowings. NOTE: Money figures are expressed in U.S. dollar equivalents. fF