TIA : 11th Meeting of the Strategic Investment Council

The 11th Meeting of the Strategic Investment Council was held today on Friday, June 11, 2021, online. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Beligh Ben Soltane, TIA President.

The members of the Strategic Council discussed, in the first part of the meeting, the content of the 2020 Assessment Report of the Investment policies by tracing the key learnings of the business climate and the priority reforms to be implemented in the short term, in particular, those expressed by public and private stakeholders and elements of strategic intelligence on the international environment. In view of the alarming and critical level of investment indicators and business climate, the discussions emphasized the need to act rapidly in order to boost investments and attract FDI.

Accelerating the implementation of best practices is a crucial issue at the risk of losing out against more aggressive competition.

This engages the Strategic Council as a private-public platform to catalyze reforms and ensure their implementation with all stakeholders.

The need for coordination and mobilization of all actors was highly emphasized to jointly succeed in this strategic challenge for Tunisia.

Implementation, remaining the weak point so far, is the keystone of the modernization of the investment climate.

Beyond the lack of marketing efforts to which is added the general context of instability and global governance, Tunisia benefits from addressing in-depth the challenges of attracting its ecosystem of innovation and talent. which are decisive in the race for FDI.

The other issue raised by the council related to the green transition and in particular renewable energies which require more attention and an in-depth focus in response to the expectations of investors in this sector.

The session also highlighted the relocation and development opportunities linked to the Covid Crisis on which Tunisia would benefit from positioning itself to generate new investments.

Three key trends around resilience, digital transition and green economy were discussed and showed the extent of the resulting opportunities, particularly in relation to EU countries’ orientations, Tunisia's first economic partner.

The Covid Crisis has been a catalyst and accelerator of these trends and requires an action process to capture these opportunities. Tunisia has undeniable assets in this very favorable context through targeted reforms impacting innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems. The examples of an Open Innovation approach around sector clusters and an approach to attracting and retaining national and international talents and skills were raised.

The members expressed the need to define the priority growth niches for Tunisia, to strengthen the ecosystem of innovation and the resilience of the SME fabric, and to pay more attention on the retention and attraction of talents and 'incentives for training programs (Re / Upskilling).

The session also dealt in the third part, the prospects for improving the governance of the Strategic Council considered as a force of proposal and impacting action on the business environment through the adapted and agile organization for the implementation of reforms.

Concrete proposals were also presented and would benefit from being discussed with public and private actors during dedicated sessions. The meeting was also an opportunity to introduce a beta version of the Interactive Investor's Guide, which consists of a digital tool encompassing the main information useful to investors.

This guide is a project financed by the EBRD, within the framework of the program to support the work of the Strategic Council. It is being led by TIA and will go live in September 2021. In addition to the permanent members of the Strategic Council namely UTICA, CONECT, IACE, MEFAI, ITCEQ, APIA, APII, SMART Tunisia, CJD, the session invited Mr. Ibrahim Debbache, president of the Council of Joint Chambers of Commerce in Tunisia, In this context, the meeting was attended by Mr. Antoine Sallé De Chou, President of EBRD in Tunisia.