Tunis, January 5, 2009- During his meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr Mohamed Ghannouchi, on Monday, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali focused on the government program for 2009.

He stressed the importance of promoting the legal framework, in order to develop human resources as well as reinforcing infrastructure, especially in industrial and technological areas and premises, with a view to providing job opportunities.

He also reiterated the importance of following up on the world financial and economic situation and to implement measures taken to help export companies alleviate the consequences of the drop in demand on world markets.

The Head of State further focused on the preparations underway for a midway evaluation of the implementation of the 11 th plan and the identification of the objectives and programs of the five year period 2010-2014.

He also stressed the importance of priority issues, such as the use of water resources through the generalization of water saving equipments in irrigated areas, energy saving, the promotion of renewable energies, the upgrading of the environmental program of enterprises and the boosting of environmental education.

The Prime Minister, presented the Head of State with the agenda of the cabinet meeting due to be held during the week.

Tunis, January 5, 2009- The newspaper Le Temps reports in Monday’s issue that the UK- based low-cost airline, Easy Jet has submitted a request to Tunisia ‘s civil aviation authorities (OACA) to operate a service from certain European cities such as Geneva, Paris and Frankfurt to respectively Tunis, Monastir and Djerba.

The new service is expected to start in summer 2009.

After Transavia, Ryanair and Thomsonfly, Easy Jet is the fourth low-cost airline to operate a service to major Tunisian cities.

The company which is ranked fourth European airline, ordered 202 airbus A 319 in June 2008, so far 117, have been delivered to the airline. Le Temps writes that the company flies to 100 European airports, as well as to Morocco, Turkey and Egypt. In 2008 it carried 43,7 million passengers.

The newspaper observes that the airline’s new Tunisian service will have positive consequences on Tunisia’s tourism especially during the busy summer season.

Tunis, January 5, 2009- Born in Bizerta on January 2, 1909, Tawhida Ben Cheikh, the first Tunisian and Arab female physician, celebrated on Friday her hundredth birthday.

Tawhida Ben Cheikh* is also the first Tunisian woman to have successfully passed the Baccalaureate exam in 1928.

After studying physics and biology in Paris for three years, she took up medicine and graduated as a gynaecologist in 1936.

Upon her return to Tunisia, she opened her own medical cabinet and later became one of the pioneering figures of family planning in Tunisia. She was also the director of the family planning office, the vice-president of the Tunisian Red Crescent and a member of the Tunisian Order of Physicians.

After having chaired the maternity service at Aziza Othmana Hospital from 1955 to 1964, she retired from active duty in 1977.

A witness and an actor of Tunisia’s rich contemporary history, Tawhida Ben Cheikh is also a symbol of the fighting spirit and the success of Tunisian women before and after independence.

* Photograph of Tawhida Ben Cheikh in 1936

Tunis, January 5, 2009- In spite of the world economic crisis, the Tunis stock exchange has progressed by 10,7% in 2008 , the third best performance in the world, according to the French news agency AFP.

In 2008 the Tunis Stock Exchange ranked third in the world only after Accra, Ghana and Quito, Ecuador, according to the French business magazine Challenges.

In October 2008, the TV channel Bloomberg, ranked the Tunis Stock Exchange second in the world after Accra.

In a statement to the AFP, a financial analyst said that “Tunis is an oasis of financial stability, the best of places for foreign investments”.

According to Mr Adel Grar, the president of the association of stockbrokers the “Tunis Stock Exchange has avoided the crisis”, something he attributes in part to “its lack of openness to the market”, adding that “there has been no shortage of liquidities and the block market has functioned properly”.

Tunis, January 4, 2009- A Tunisian cargo plane carrying emergency relief items for the population of Gaza, has landed on Saturday morning at the El Arich airport, North Sinai, in Egypt.

This initiative comes in implementation of a presidential decision to send emergency aid in solidarity with the Palestinian population in Gaza that is experiencing difficult circumstances as a result of the Israeli aggressions.

The plane took off at dawn from the El Aouina military airport, loaded with 16 tons of medicine, basic food items, covers, and tents.

The aid will be handed to the concerned parties with a view of being distributing in the Gaza strip.