UAE-based Bukhatir Group will revive a $5 billion real estate project in Tunis, Tunisian sources told Reuters on Friday, the first big project in the North African country since a 2011 revolution.
Sources said the group will officially launch the Tunis Sports City project next week after it was halted following the revolution that toppled former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.
The project include sports academies, a golf course, hotels and apartments covering 275 hectares in the north of Tunis. It is expected intially to provide about 10,000 jobs in the country, where unemployment is more than 18%.
Tunisian government officials were not immediately available for comment. Bukhatir could not immediately be reached for comment.
Tunisia has been seeking foreign investment to revive its economy which has been hit hard by the pandemic after years of stagnation, compounded by political turmoil.
President Kais Saied in July suspended the parliament and seized control of executive powers.
Major Western lenders have said he needs to restore normal constitutional order.
Some Gulf states saw Saied’s intervention as undermining the Muslim Brotherhood movement, which they regard as their main regional foe, and which is close to the biggest party in Tunisia’s now frozen parliament.
