MEDiterranean PROspects

Mrs. Saloua Ben Zaghou-Bahri, born in Tunis (1946), is the director of the Tunisian Institute of Competitiveness and Quantitative Studies (ITCEQ). She graduated from the Sciences’ Faculty of Tunis and from the School of Statistics and Economic Administration of Paris (ENSAE). Her expertise covers a wide range of issues among which: education economics (in cooperation with Algier’s Center for Research in Applied Economics, CREA), exchange rate policy, monetary and financial policy, banking economics, knowledge economics, macroeconomic, VAR and general equilibrium modeling (especially for the ITCEQ within impact assessment studies and scenario analysis). Dr. Ben Zaghou takes part in national consultations on employment and productivity and is member of the National Council on Statistics and of the Committee on stock market indexes.

Dr. Rym Ayadi is the coordinator of MEDPRO, member of the scientific bureau and WP6- Financial services and capital markets leader.
Dr. Rym Ayadi is Senior Research Fellow and Head of Research of the Financial Institutions, Prudential Policy and Tax Unit at the Centre for European Policy Studies since 2001. She holds a PhD in economics and finance at the University Paris Dauphine. Previous to CEPS, she was economist at the French banking association in Paris and at the European Commission in Directorate General Economics and Financial Affairs. She also lectured industrial economics and game theory at university of Lille II and at the university Paris Dauphine in France and international financial institutions & markets and financial & risk analysis at the International Business School of the Isle of Man. Rym Ayadi has authored several books and papers on financial market regulation and integration in Europe. Recently, she has developed a particular interest for South Mediterranean Region and Africa with a focus on business and financial markets development, SME financing, foreign direct investment and trade. She acted as a senior expert in several projects on the regions e.g. the Euro-Mediterranean Charter development and evaluation, EU-Mediterranean Partnership evaluation, banking and financial markets developments and regulation in economies in transition, competition policy and economic integration in the Mediterranean region. She managed several projects on financial services, trade, enterprise, consumer and foreign policies funded by the European Union institutions; she is senior expert of several expert groups set by the European Commission on financial services policies and external advisor to the European Parliament on banking regulation, crisis management and Euro-med relations. She is “Rapporteur” for several high-level CEPS working parties, Vice President of the European Financial Inclusion Network (EFIN), a European network that promotes mutual learning on financial inclusion and invited lecturer in several European universities.