Financial Crisis: A Series of Measures to Support Businesses
2 September 2008
Read by 1612 persons
At the opening of the Council of Ministers meeting on Tuesday, December 23, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali announced a series of measures to support businesses and sectors that may be affected by the global financial crisis.
These measures are necessary to support companies experiencing reduced activity, allowing them to maintain production and export levels.
The Council took the following measures:
- The state will cover 50% of employer contributions to social security during periods where working hours are reduced by at least eight hours due to slower business activity.
- The state will cover employer contributions to social security during periods of technical unemployment due to reduced business activity related to foreign markets.
- The state will cover 50% of the cost of export insurance for exporting companies and encourage the Tunisian Company for Foreign Trade Insurance (COTUNACE) to provide reinsurance.
- The state will cover two percentage points of the interest rate on rescheduled loans for exporting companies experiencing delayed payments or slower activity, encouraging lending institutions to support these companies.
- Lending institutions can deduct waived ordinary and compound interest, as well as late payment interest, from their corporate tax base.
- Reduce the exchange rate risk to encourage companies to use external financing, particularly for financial restructuring and energy savings.
- Help companies finance additional working capital needs; provide the Tunisian Guarantee Company with a 25 MD guarantee line for export pre-financing and mobilization of foreign receivables.
- Reduce tax refund times and accelerate the release of payments to companies for public contracts.
- Adopt exceptional measures to immediately finance training requests from companies facing difficulties, within the framework of the Professional Training and Apprenticeship Promotion Fund.
- Activate anti-dumping mechanisms and implement a specific program to reduce parallel trade.
- Create a committee within the Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to guide companies seeking support and ensure coordination between stakeholders.
- Expand the Foreign Market Access Fund in its second phase (FAMEX 2), allocating 10 MD in credit to include 200 new companies in 2009, in addition to the 800 companies currently benefiting, while awaiting the launch of FAMEX 3.
- Review the interventions of the Export Promotion Fund to increase institutional support, subsidies for export points, and direct support to exporting companies.
- Increase the budget for fairs and exhibitions by one million dinars.
- Allocate 8 MD in credit to settle outstanding issues within the Export Promotion Fund for 2007 and 2008.
- Develop a program to intensify tourism promotion campaigns.
Regarding competitiveness and economic activity, the council took the following measures:
- Continue customs tariff reform, reducing the number of rates from 9 to 6 in 2009, then from 6 to 5 in 2010, and the average tariff to 15% by 2011.
- Review import technical control procedures to clarify them and remove inefficient technical barriers to trade.
- Full operation of the Radès port single window by the end of 2010.
- Complete the single customs document for the transport sector in 2009.
- Organize Radès port stakeholders in accordance with the Maritime and Commercial Ports Code and the provisions of the International Maritime Facilitation Convention to reduce cargo port stay to three days by the end of 2009.
- Launch a tender at the beginning of 2009 for a logistics zone in Radès and another in Jebel Oust, and revise the regulatory framework for the creation and operation of logistics zones.
- Revise legislation on food and industrial product safety, applying international standards.
- Create a national council to fight counterfeiting, and develop and implement an action plan; create an information and statistics system to manage intervention requests and anti-counterfeiting operations.
- Evaluate the general framework governing the service sector and develop an action plan for upgrading and promoting it in coordination with relevant structures, focusing on information and communication technologies, health, tourism, transport, logistics, business services, financial services, and retail, based on completed or planned studies.
- Develop a program to increase technical skills, particularly engineers, by creating new engineering schools to reach 7,000 graduates in 2011.
- Construct and equip 100,000 square meters of additional space as part of the Ghazala Technopôle expansion into new areas in Ariana and Manouba governorates, and 100,000 square meters more across the Sousse and Sfax technology parks.
- Reduce the price of specialized lines by 25%.
- Develop an action plan to achieve the President's goal of reducing outstanding debts to 10% in 2011 and reorganize the administrative and financial structure of offices, agricultural cooperatives, and public institutions with financial imbalances.
- Reform the credit guarantee system by evaluating the repayment schedule and tariffs applied by the Tunisian Guarantee Company, and implement an action plan to achieve the results of this evaluation to improve the company's performance.
- Reform the legal and regulatory framework for investment companies and development capital funds, reviewing the provisions of the governing law at the beginning of 2009 and adopting a specific accounting plan in line with international standards by the end of 2010.
- List several public companies on the stock exchange to strengthen the financial market.
- Reduce VAT overpayment refunds for export transactions to 7 days.
- Reduce the formalities required for business creation from 10 to 5.
- Revise the Trade Register Act to ensure continuous updating and online access to improve the business database.
- Revise the law on business recovery and transfer, the bankruptcy law, and the Commercial Companies Code.
- Develop a guide to labor legislation for businesses and establish training units in this area to improve understanding of said legislation.
- Invite social partners to respect the annual working time to strengthen businesses' ability to maintain jobs and adapt to market demands.
- Adopt international partnerships to meet national needs in professional training.
- Redeploy and rationalize foreign trade offices to strengthen their presence in emerging markets.
- Implement a complementary program with the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency in partnership with international offices to promote Tunisia's position in the industrial and service sectors identified in strategic studies for 2016: offshoring, tourism, health services, financial services, and consulting.
- Begin developing a third export promotion and business support program to access new markets.
The Council also reviewed two draft laws: the first on short-term measures to support businesses to continue their operations; the second on increasing the capital of the Tunisian Company for Foreign Trade Insurance.
Posted January 6, 2009
Invest in Tunisia
These measures are necessary to support companies experiencing reduced activity, allowing them to maintain production and export levels.
The Council took the following measures:
- The state will cover 50% of employer contributions to social security during periods where working hours are reduced by at least eight hours due to slower business activity.
- The state will cover employer contributions to social security during periods of technical unemployment due to reduced business activity related to foreign markets.
- The state will cover 50% of the cost of export insurance for exporting companies and encourage the Tunisian Company for Foreign Trade Insurance (COTUNACE) to provide reinsurance.
- The state will cover two percentage points of the interest rate on rescheduled loans for exporting companies experiencing delayed payments or slower activity, encouraging lending institutions to support these companies.
- Lending institutions can deduct waived ordinary and compound interest, as well as late payment interest, from their corporate tax base.
- Reduce the exchange rate risk to encourage companies to use external financing, particularly for financial restructuring and energy savings.
- Help companies finance additional working capital needs; provide the Tunisian Guarantee Company with a 25 MD guarantee line for export pre-financing and mobilization of foreign receivables.
- Reduce tax refund times and accelerate the release of payments to companies for public contracts.
- Adopt exceptional measures to immediately finance training requests from companies facing difficulties, within the framework of the Professional Training and Apprenticeship Promotion Fund.
- Activate anti-dumping mechanisms and implement a specific program to reduce parallel trade.
- Create a committee within the Ministry of Industry, Energy, and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to guide companies seeking support and ensure coordination between stakeholders.
- Expand the Foreign Market Access Fund in its second phase (FAMEX 2), allocating 10 MD in credit to include 200 new companies in 2009, in addition to the 800 companies currently benefiting, while awaiting the launch of FAMEX 3.
- Review the interventions of the Export Promotion Fund to increase institutional support, subsidies for export points, and direct support to exporting companies.
- Increase the budget for fairs and exhibitions by one million dinars.
- Allocate 8 MD in credit to settle outstanding issues within the Export Promotion Fund for 2007 and 2008.
- Develop a program to intensify tourism promotion campaigns.
Regarding competitiveness and economic activity, the council took the following measures:
- Continue customs tariff reform, reducing the number of rates from 9 to 6 in 2009, then from 6 to 5 in 2010, and the average tariff to 15% by 2011.
- Review import technical control procedures to clarify them and remove inefficient technical barriers to trade.
- Full operation of the Radès port single window by the end of 2010.
- Complete the single customs document for the transport sector in 2009.
- Organize Radès port stakeholders in accordance with the Maritime and Commercial Ports Code and the provisions of the International Maritime Facilitation Convention to reduce cargo port stay to three days by the end of 2009.
- Launch a tender at the beginning of 2009 for a logistics zone in Radès and another in Jebel Oust, and revise the regulatory framework for the creation and operation of logistics zones.
- Revise legislation on food and industrial product safety, applying international standards.
- Create a national council to fight counterfeiting, and develop and implement an action plan; create an information and statistics system to manage intervention requests and anti-counterfeiting operations.
- Evaluate the general framework governing the service sector and develop an action plan for upgrading and promoting it in coordination with relevant structures, focusing on information and communication technologies, health, tourism, transport, logistics, business services, financial services, and retail, based on completed or planned studies.
- Develop a program to increase technical skills, particularly engineers, by creating new engineering schools to reach 7,000 graduates in 2011.
- Construct and equip 100,000 square meters of additional space as part of the Ghazala Technopôle expansion into new areas in Ariana and Manouba governorates, and 100,000 square meters more across the Sousse and Sfax technology parks.
- Reduce the price of specialized lines by 25%.
- Develop an action plan to achieve the President's goal of reducing outstanding debts to 10% in 2011 and reorganize the administrative and financial structure of offices, agricultural cooperatives, and public institutions with financial imbalances.
- Reform the credit guarantee system by evaluating the repayment schedule and tariffs applied by the Tunisian Guarantee Company, and implement an action plan to achieve the results of this evaluation to improve the company's performance.
- Reform the legal and regulatory framework for investment companies and development capital funds, reviewing the provisions of the governing law at the beginning of 2009 and adopting a specific accounting plan in line with international standards by the end of 2010.
- List several public companies on the stock exchange to strengthen the financial market.
- Reduce VAT overpayment refunds for export transactions to 7 days.
- Reduce the formalities required for business creation from 10 to 5.
- Revise the Trade Register Act to ensure continuous updating and online access to improve the business database.
- Revise the law on business recovery and transfer, the bankruptcy law, and the Commercial Companies Code.
- Develop a guide to labor legislation for businesses and establish training units in this area to improve understanding of said legislation.
- Invite social partners to respect the annual working time to strengthen businesses' ability to maintain jobs and adapt to market demands.
- Adopt international partnerships to meet national needs in professional training.
- Redeploy and rationalize foreign trade offices to strengthen their presence in emerging markets.
- Implement a complementary program with the Foreign Investment Promotion Agency in partnership with international offices to promote Tunisia's position in the industrial and service sectors identified in strategic studies for 2016: offshoring, tourism, health services, financial services, and consulting.
- Begin developing a third export promotion and business support program to access new markets.
The Council also reviewed two draft laws: the first on short-term measures to support businesses to continue their operations; the second on increasing the capital of the Tunisian Company for Foreign Trade Insurance.
Posted January 6, 2009
Invest in Tunisia
