Digitization of business transactions to dismantle obstacles to investors and launching new maritime route to deliver exports to African markets
The Tunisian government unveiled a package of urgent reforms aimed mainly at overcoming the large trade deficit as the countdown to the country’s formal accession to the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) began.
Officials believe that export is an existential issue for the economy, and therefore development must be accelerated in addition to strengthening the reserves of the Central Bank of foreign currency.
“The ministry is currently working on digitizing commercial transactions and the government is striving to dismantle obstacles to investors in terms of the logistics sector, customs and banks’ work,” Trade Minister Omar El-Bahi said during a seminar on the reality of exports in Tunisia.
He announced that a new maritime line will be inaugurated this month to deliver exports to African coastal countries, stressing the intention of African countries to open their offices in Tunisia, especially as it will be a member of COMESA officially in July.
COMESA is one of the world’s leading markets with 19 African countries with a population of some 480 million. The group’s framework agreement provides for the liberalization of agricultural and industrial products, services and other strategic sectors.
Tunisian exports, thanks to the new route are expected to grow by about 4 % a year, enabling authorities to fill part of the worsening trade deficit.
The Transport Ministry said in August that the Tunisian Maritime Company would launch a sea line connecting the port of Sfax to the Russian Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port, but did not specify the timing of its launch.
Tunisia is betting on the revival of the logistics sector through a long-term strategy to develop infrastructure and transportation to boost the business climate, despite the daunting challenges facing the implementation of the plan.
El-Bahi stressed that the government has opened a serious dialogue with the private sector in order to solve all logistical problems facing the country’s export sector to help it seize opportunities in African markets.
Tunisia no longer fully focuses on its traditional partners such as the European Union, which moved its economic diplomacy in all directions last year, including countries namely China, Russia, Indonesia and others.
Officials are making efforts to overcome the weaknesses of the lack of diplomatic coverage on the continent as well as air links by supporting the presence of Tunisians in African countries as soon as possible.
The number of Tunisian embassies in Africa, consisting of 54 countries, is 10 embassies only, after the opening of two embassies last November in Kenya and Burkina Faso.
The other factor is the weak presence of Tunisian banks on the continent. Current conditions require Tunisia to focus its branches in African countries, especially as Morocco acquires African banks, which facilitates exports and trade transactions with Rabat.
Two Tunisian experts, Jalila Ben Sultan and Mohamed Torjmane, said that obstacles to the export sector are due to the “traditional mentality” of local exporters.
“Most exporters in Tunisia have not yet adapted to the requirements of international activity,” says Ben Sultan, noting that there are significant marketing difficulties for local products.
The responsibility for all the overlapping parties in this sector was taken from banks and customs to ports, because they did not accelerate to cope with the enormous technological leap in administrative and commercial transactions and did not contribute adequately to the development of the export sector.
But the Trade Ministry has a plan to do so. It has decided to double the budget of the Export Promotion Fund for this year to about $ 15.6 million and the budget will be doubled next year to $ 31.2 million.
Exports in the first four months of this year rose 32 % year-on-year on a series of government measures to curb the trade deficit. The government aspires to raise exports by 2020 to about $ 13.6 billion.
Tunisia relies on foreign currency supply to cover consumer needs, primarily fuel, foodstuffs, cereals, vegetable oils, electronic equipment, raw materials for the industrial sector, health sector, medicines, cars and others.
“The export problems in Tunisia lie in the small size of the economic institutions” said Tarek Cherif, Head of the Confederation of Tunisian Citizen Entreprises (CONECT) while commending on a study prepared by his organisation which includes 300 Tunisian companies.
The government, through a package of measures, managed to make growth accelerate for the first time since 2015 to reach 2.5 percent in the first quarter, getting rid of fears that the economy could slide into recession due to worsening debt and trade deficits and increased pressure on financial balances.
TunisianMonitorOnline –MNHN (Translated from Al-Arab, article written by Riadh Bouazza)
