The Washington-based World Bank is preparing $4bn of financing for Tunisia over the next five years, the country’s Finance Minister Slim Chaker confirmed to the Tunisian Press Agency.

The funds will support reforms and development programmes, as Tunis readies its development plan for 2016 to 2020.

“The World Bank will be a committed partner in meeting this goal [consolidating political achievements with economic reforms],” said Sri Mulyani Indrawati, managing director and chief operating officer at the World Bank, in a statement. “We are more resolved than ever to support Tunisia in laying the foundations for sustainable and inclusive growth.”

The cooperation between the World Bank and the country will focus on improving Tunisia’s business climate, expanding access to credit, increasing transparency and accountability in government, improving education, and making labour markets more efficient.

Tunisia needs reform of its banking systems as its ratio of non-performing loans stays stubbornly high.

Tax and investment code reforms are a priority to facilitate private sector investment. Industrial investment fell by 9.1 per cent in the first quarter of 2015 to TD714m ($365m), especially in construction and services, according to the local Industry and Innovation Promotion Agency (APII). Foreign investment declined by 63 per cent.

It also needs massive employment creation as unemployment was at 15 per cent in the final quarter of 2014, and as high as 26 per cent in the phosphate mining town of Gafsa, according to the National Institute of Statistics (NIS).

The main employer there, Gafsa Phosphate Company, recorded a fall in production of 39 per cent in the first quarter to 604,000 tonnes, less than half its capacity, due to sit-ins by local protesters seeking work.

Sit-ins also forced the shutdown of the Kerkennah gas field in mid-April.

GDP growth in 2014 reached 2.3 per cent, but annual inflation hit 5.7 per cent in March 2015, according to NIS.

“The consensus that drove the political transition now provides an opportunity to address key economic reforms,” says Hafez Ghanem, regional vice-president for the Middle East and North Africa at the World Bank. “Parliament can play a critical role in harnessing that consensus for the implementation of reforms that can transform the economy.”

The US’ Fitch Ratings revised Tunisia’s outlook from negative to stable following the formation of a goverment in early 2015. It affirmed the foreign currency issuer BB- rating as it expects Tunisia’s fiscal position to improve and public debt to stabilise below 50 per cent of GDP in 2015.

Tunisia also has a $1.7bn, 24-month stand-by arrangement with the Washington-based IMF, in place since mid-2013. To date, $1.1bn has been disbursed.

It issued $1bn of sovereign bonds on international markets in January, with a yield of 5.9 per cent.