Zouhour Karray

Dr. Zouhour Karray is a citizen of Tunisia. Currently, she is Senior Private Sector Specialist in the Democratic Republic of Congo, based in Kinshasa. Before joining the DRC, Zouhour was Trust Fund Manager in Tunisia and led the establishment of the Country Umbrella Program composed of 1 Anchor MDTF and 3 associated Trust Funds - a total of US$ 87 millions with 7 development partners. She was Consultant with the World Bank Group since 2015, in charge of coordination of three projects (third export development project, Integrated Landscape Management Project, and cross projects initiative to support value chain development). Zouhour Karray is a Full Professor of Economics at Higher School of Economics and Trade (University of Tunis). She holds a Bachelor's degree in Economics from University of Sfax, a Master's degree in Industrial Economics and Ph.D. in Economics from University of Toulouse I (currently Toulouse School of Economics). She is specialized in Industrial Organization, International Trade, and Competitiveness. Zouhour Karray has also professional experience with government in Tunisia. As Advisor to the Minister, she was member of the committee in charge of the preparation of the guideline for the strategic development plan 2016-2020, (since February 2015) with the Ministry of Development, Investment and International Cooperation. She worked at the Cabinet of the Ministry of Economy and Finances, as an advisor to the Minister, in charge of the development model design and the new economic vision through strengthening competitiveness of priority clusters (with higher added value). Since February 2015, Zouhour Karray joined the Maghreb Economic Forum as program manager. She is also a research associate at the Economic Research Forum, a membership of the Al Kindi Institute and a research at the UAQUAP research center. She participated in several research projects and performed commissioned studies with international institutions such as African Development Bank (AfDB), Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI), Economic Research Forum (ERF) and Arab Institute of Business leaders (IACE). She has a great capacity of teamwork and remarkable coordination capacity. Her fields of expertise and intervention in fields of the industrial economy and more exactly the study of issues related to innovation capacity of firms, technological spillover, agglomeration effects and competitiveness will allow her to bring an added value to this program. She has several academic publications in international revues and books.