Tunisian President Celebrates 90th Birthday by Hosting 2020 Conference

Summary

Tunisian pres­i­dent Beji Caid Essebsi cel­e­brated his 90^th birth­day by open­ing the Tunisia 2020 con­fer­ence, aim­ing to attract $60 bil­lion in for­eign invest­ment to help the coun­try recover from eco­nomic set­backs since the Jasmine Revolution. Despite the $8 bil­lion pledged in loans and aid on the first day of the con­fer­ence, con­cerns remain about the coun­try’s reliance on loans rather than actual invest­ments to boost the econ­omy and reduce unem­ploy­ment rates.

Tunisian pres­i­dent Beji Caid Essebsi turned 90 as he opened Tunisia’s 2020 con­fer­ence on November 29. The con­fer­ence aimed to attract $60 bil­lion in for­eign invest­ment in Tunisia. Since the Jasmine Revolution, in 2011 around 500 for­eign com­pa­nies have left Tunisia due to dis­rup­tion caused by protests and sit-ins.

Tunisia 2020, which ran from November 29 – 30, was an attempt to reboot for­eign invest­ment in Tunisia. Foreign invest­ment fell from $3.5 bil­lion in 2010 to $2 bil­lion in 2015. In his open­ing speech, Essebsi said, ​“Tunisia has been pass­ing through a very par­tic­u­lar phase and requires a level of sup­port that it would not nor­mally need.”
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2020 was not Tunisia’s first attempt at lur­ing inter­na­tional investors. In 2014, Tunisia hosted ​‘Invest in Tunisia’ which failed to seduce for­eign investors.

A new invest­ment law was passed in September to make for­eign invest­ment in Tunisia eas­ier. The law will relax bureau­cracy and ease restric­tions on trans­fer­ring funds out of Tunisia. Under the new law, for­eign com­pa­nies will enjoy tax-free prof­its on major projects for 10 years.

Tunisia has been crip­pled by strikes over the past five years. In September, Tunisia’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Othman Battikh con­tro­ver­sially spoke out, call­ing for an end to protests and sit-ins. Every sec­tor of the work­force from teach­ers and taxi dri­vers to lawyers has resorted to strikes. The Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) called for a gen­eral strike on December 8 against pro­posed wage freezes in the 2017 bud­get.

The Tunisian econ­omy was dealt a sharp blow by ter­ror­ist attacks in 2015. Tourism slumped fol­low­ing 20 deaths at the Bardo Museum and 37 tourists los­ing their lives in the Sousse beach mas­sacre.

The Tunisian Government declared a state of emer­gency in November 2015 fol­low­ing a sui­cide attack on a bus in Tunis. The state of emer­gency has con­tin­ued and will be in place until January 19, 2017.

The first day of the con­fer­ence saw $8 bil­lion pledged in loans and aid. The funds came from regional and west­ern part­ners includ­ing France, Canada, Qatar, Kuwait, Switzerland, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Much of the fund­ing came in the form of loans rather than the desired invest­ment. According to eco­nomic ana­lyst Ezzedine Saidane, ​“A large amount were for loans for projects. We didn’t hear that much about invest­ments.” Saidane added, ​“Loans are fine but they are also going to deepen Tunisia’s debt.” Tunisia’s invest­ment min­is­ter Fadhel Abdelkefi agreed, ​“We don’t need loans as much as we need invest­ments.”

2020 show­cased two olive oil projects seek­ing invest­ment: €7 mil­lion was sought to fund a project which would bring much-needed jobs to Kasserine. The enter­prise would pro­duce organic and non-organic olive oil. Funding would be used to plant 100 hectares of olive trees and build a mod­ern pro­cess­ing and pack­ag­ing unit.

A sec­ond project aimed at pro­mot­ing Tunisian olive oil to inter­na­tional mar­kets sought €80 mil­lion to plant 10,000 hectares of olive groves and build a pro­cess­ing and pack­ag­ing unit. This busi­ness would cre­ate 2,500 jobs in Beja, Bizerte, Jendouba, Kasserine, Le kef and Siliana.

Unemployment in Tunisia stands at around 15.5 per­cent with higher rates among youths and in rural areas.

Tunisia 2020 was attended by heads of states, inter­na­tional insti­tu­tions and busi­ness peo­ple from 70 coun­tries. The con­fer­ence aspired to pro­mote Tunisia as an attrac­tive busi­ness des­ti­na­tion and bring in fund­ing for invest­ments.

Essebsi became Tunisia’s first freely elected pres­i­dent in December 2014. His elec­tion raised con­cerns among many that Tunisia would return to the old estab­lish­ment. Essebsi had served under ousted pres­i­dent Ben Ali and held the posi­tion of Interior Minister dur­ing Habib Bourghiba’s pres­i­dency.

Essebsi became the third old­est head of state in the world dur­ing Tunisia 2020. It remains to be seen if the con­fer­ence attracted enough new for­eign invest­ment in Tunisia to get the coun­try back on its feet.

• Reuters


• Tunisia Live