The French Development Agency (AFD), on Wednesday, granted Tunisia a donation of EUR 4.2 million to fund the programme to support the emergence of clusters in Tunisia and the Expertise and Capacity-Building Fund (FERC), the Ministry of Development, Investment and International Co-operation said in a statement.

    Two funding agreements were signed Wednesday by the AFD represented. The first will be used to fund the programme to support the emergence of clusters in Tunisia to the tune of EUR 3.2 million, according to the Tunisian news agency (TAP).

    This programme aims to support the pilot phase of a national mechanism to support the emergence of clusters in Tunisia, as a vector of competitiveness, innovation and local economic development.

    Regarding the second agreement, it provides for financing the Expertise and Capacity-Building Fund (FERC) with a value of EUR 1 million. TAP added.

    The FERC is an instrument designed to fund studies or exercises to identify projects and project feasibility, sectoral or institutional, necessary for the preparation of projects it intends to finance or check their feasibility.