25 June 2009
Tunis — "Tunisia aims at becoming a high value added Mediterranean industrial hub by 2016", said Mr Afif Chelbi , Minister of industry, energy and small and medium enterprises on Thursday.
Mr Chelbi who was speaking within the framework of the 2009 edition of the Carthage Investment Forum in Hammamet (June 24-25), gave highlights on the country's industrial strategy by 2016.
The strategy aims at doubling industrial production and increasing by threefold investments in industry. Tunisia which is Europe's 10 th cable supplier and its 5 th supplier in the sector of garments and textile, will gradually boost its emerging industries (ICT, aeronautics and automobile parts) which will account by 2016 for more than half of the country's industrial production, said the Minister.
Particular care will be given to clean industries and sustainable development said the Minister, with a focus on the aeronautic sector which includes some 40 companies, in majority French which represent a real opportunity for the country to seize.
Tunisia also ambitions to become a leading regional centre of excellence in the sector of industrial engineering; a justified ambition he added, given the fact that several international companies have opened competence centres dedicated to their industrial production. This is the case of the French Italian group "ST Microelectronics" and France's "Sagem" which have opened centres employing hundreds of Tunisian cadres and engineers, but also of "Siemens", "Yamaichi Electronics" and "Actielec".
During the Forum, French and Italian companies already operating in Tunisia have pledged to further invest in the country, in view of the expected resumption of competition following the end of the economic crisis.
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