São Paulo – The government of Tunisia, the Arab country that recently lived protests and a regime change, has privatisation as one of its targets. The prime minister of Tunisia, Hamadi Jebali, spoke about the theme during the first day of the Conference for Arab Businessman and Investors, on Monday (14), in Tunis. The CEO at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, Michel Alaby, is participating in the event.
According to Alaby, there is an intention to privatise the fertilizer sector, which is a great source of revenues for the country, and also the hospitality sector, as a large share of the hotels in the country are state-owned. Privatisation, according to the executive, may help the country return to growth in the tourism sector, which dropped at the beginning of the protests, early last year. Authorities, in fact, hope for normalisation of the tourist flow in the June and July holidays in Europe and the Middle East.
Jebali called for businessmen to make their contribution to the new economic policy of the government, including privatisation. In this invitation he included calls for support to reduce the bureaucracy in Tunisia and to attract foreign investment. The prime minister said that, after one year, the country is still in a phase of political transition to democracy, in which economy in benefit of the people should prevail.
The conference, whose main objective is investment in the Arab world, especially in the countries that lived protests, brought together over 35 businessmen at Le Palace Gammarth-Tunis hotel in the first day. The president of the General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries, Adnan Kassar, also spoke about the challenge of implementing democracy in Tunisia. He said that the new government should answer to the public desire for more work options and greater quality of life.
The president of the Tunisian Union of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (Utica), Wided Bouchamaoui, said that the changes in Tunisia will help the country interact with the global economy and may be a gateway into the European Union and Africa. The panels promoted by invited speakers covered the local economy and that of the region, as well as successful cases in Egypt, in the area of cosmetics, in Saudi Arabia, in civil construction and telecommunications, and in Kuwait, in the banking area.
The League of Arab States’ assistant secretary general for Economic Affairs, Samer Ali, also participated in the conference. The meeting should continue on Tuesday with case studies in Sudan, Libya and Bahrain.
*Translated by Mark Ament
