TUNIS, May 20 (Xinhua) -- French Ambassador to Tunisia Olivier Poivre d'Arvor said on Monday that the economic relations binding Tunisia and France are win-win close partnership, not domination or exploitation of wealth, the Tunis Afrique Presse reported.
"Tunisia has no lessons to learn from anyone ... We must not confuse independence with isolation, or territorial sovereignty and economic patriotism with economic isolation," said d'Arvor at a press conference on the presentation of the Tunisia-France economic partnership revival program.
He said 34 percent of the non-energy foreign direct investments in Tunisia in 2018 were made by France.
"There are 1,400 French companies active in Tunisia providing jobs for 140,000 people," d'Arvor added.
The French ambassador noted that his country is Tunisia's largest customer and was the destination of nearly 30 percent of Tunisian exports in 2018.
Tunisia's trade surplus with France hit a record 1.2 billion euros (1.34 billion U.S. dollars) in 2018, said d'Arvor.
