With a new government in place, Tunisia is looking to Korea to attract investors and businesses to the new democracy, according to Tunisia’s investment vice minister.

Alaya Bettaieb, the secretary of state to the Minister of Investment and International Cooperation, said that the recent revolution has jumpstarted investment in the country and urged Koreans to join.

“Today, Tunisia is a country which is already attracting 3,200 foreign companies,” Bettaieb said.

At the Korea-Tunisia Economic Forum held in Seoul on Tuesday, the vice minister and Tunisian officials from government sectors including tourism, export, and investment promotion discussed opportunities in the country.

“As part of our campaign to show the new Tunisia we are holding today this Korea-Tunisia Economic Forum,” said Tunisian Ambassador Ammar Amari.

“This is really a chance to show Korean investors and Korean businessmen the opportunities which are really provided by the Tunisian government to invest in Tunisia.”

This is after the country has already received investment from previously disinterested countries.

“We started receiving companies from non-classic partners of Tunisia,” said Bettaieb who mentioned China, Russia and Scandinavian countries.

The vice minister attributed this to his country’s increasingly stable conditions, after becoming the cradle of the Arab Spring in early 2011 and holding its first democratic elections in October.

“Most international observers believe the situation in Tunisia is progressing smoothly and maturely,” he said, attributing this to the country’s newly placed anticorruption measures.

Major Korean companies already in Tunisia include Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics, Daewoo Shipping and Hyundai Engineering.

Abdellatif Hamam CEO of the Tunisian Export Promotion Center said Tunisia can be Korea’s access to North African and sub-Saharan markets, including oil-rich Libya. Korea has sought to nurture economic and diplomatic relations with Libya in the wake of its revolution.

By Robert Lee (robert@heraldcorp.com)