Tunisian-French free software meetings

Tunisian-French free software meetings are held on September 29-30 in Tunis. They aim to strengthen the relations of co-operation and partnership in this area between the two countries' companies. About thirty Tunisian and twenty French companies are taking part in this event. Those companies are interested in the design and development of new "Open Source" applications. In a recorded statement, Mr. Eric Besson, French Minister of Industry, Energy and Digital Economy, spoke of the commitment taken by both countries to "to make the digital sector at the heart of the Tunisian-French collaboration," which will help speed up the pace of job creation, particularly for graduate youths, favour the development of small and medium enterprises and support technological transfer. He also said that Tunisia has all necessary assets to become an important pole in the free Software sector. For his part, Mr. Adel Gaaloul, Secretary of State in charge of Technology, said: "we must improve the competitiveness of the Tunisian technological offer by  developing human skills, improving infrastructure and revising production costs." The point, he underlined, is "to initiate small and medium enterprises to new open source applications to make the most of technological innovation. The administration is also called to develop new technological platforms." Participants in this meeting, among representatives of Tunisian and French enterprises, expressed will to identify opportunities of collaboration to allow the Tunisian side to commercialise its high tech products internationally and the French side to make the most of the Tunisian know-how. These meetings are jointly held by Tunisia's Association of Open Source Professionals and France's Federation of Free Software Industry.