(TAP) - Tunisia and the French Development Agency (AFD) signed on Tuesday at the Government Palace in Kasbah four financial agreements covering two loans worth €130 million and two grants worth €7 million in the fields of support for small and medium-sized enterprises, improved sanitation in popular districts, education and sports.

The four agreements were signed by Minister of Economy and Planning, Feryel Ouerghi Sebai and Director General of the AFD, Rémi Rioux.

The €80 million loan will be used to support small and medium-sized enterprises, while the €50 million loan will be used for the national programme to clean up working-class neighbourhoods.

The first €6 million grant will support a number of projects in the fields of education and sports, while the second €1 million will provide technical support for the project to clean up working-class neighbourhoods.

Environment Minister Leila Cheikhaoui Mahdaoui told reporters that the signing of such agreements with the French Development Agency was very important, notably in the field of sanitation, especially for working-class neighbourhoods, noting that it covers more than 200,000 Tunisian families throughout the Republic.

She pointed out that the sanitation programme was launched in Tunisia in the 1990s and continues today with new visions and formulas, enabling it to reach all areas of the country in order to establish the right to a healthy environment.

For his part, the Minister of Youth and Sport, Kamel Gueddiche, explained that the agreement, which concerns the field of sport and education, specifically concerns the improvements and repairs needed by the Sports Institute at the infrastructure level, as well as the Olympic clubs that will be installed in 100 educational establishments.

CEO of the National Sanitation Company (ONAS), Abdelmadjid Baltaieb stressed that the €1 million grant agreement will support ONAS's capacity within the framework of the programmes set up by the state since 1989 for the sanitation of working class neighbourhoods, especially as the programme is now in its sixth generation.

He added that the loan, estimated at €50 million, will target the sanitation of 146 working-class neighbourhoods for the benefit of 262,000 inhabitants, with a view to universalising sanitation services in all the provinces of the Republic.

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