Tunisia is planning to pass a new investment law early next year that will give more incentives to foreign investors  and reduce “administrative procedures and bureaucracy”, Reuters quoted its investment minister saying.

The new law is expected to help the North African country double its inflows of foreign investment over the next five years by pushing through legal reforms and reducing industrial unrest.

“We aim to attract investments worth 2.8 billion dinars ($1.4 billion) in 2016 compared with 2.5 billion dinars this year with the increasing climate of social peace,” Yassine Brahim, who is also Tunisia’s development minister, told Reuters.

Brahim said the incentives that will mainly target companies that seek to export from Tunisia and those that plan to invest in the interior parts of the country, are aimed at  reducing the wealth gap between the affluent coastal regions and the impoverished interior.

He added that the new law would allow foreign investors to easily repatriate profits out of the country.

Tunisia’s foreign direct investment (FDI) suffered a blow in 2011 when the Arab Spring erupted and ousted the then dictator Ben Ali. FDI inflows to the country have remained subdued as industrial unrest persisted to date.

Attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in Tunisia has been an ongoing endeavor of the government, as it seeks to initiate economic recovery and increase employment, Tunisia Live reported.