Saïd Aïdi, Tunisia's Urgent Employment Minister
8 June 2011
Read by 1671 persons
Tunisia's employment policy is under development. The ministry has been entrusted to a specialist who addresses urgent issues and considers the future: Saïd Aïdi. An interview.
Few people can name him, yet in Tunisia, he is the center of attention. Saïd Aïdi, appointed Minister of Professional Training and Employment in the transitional government, is a newcomer to politics, and he intends to respect his term of office:
"I have no political future. I was called for a six-month mission. My mission will end with the Constituent Assembly elections" on July 24, 2011, he assures.
A graduate of Polytechnique in France, where he settled and created Atlasys, an independent IT consulting firm in human resources, Saïd Aïdi was deeply honored when Tunisia called upon him. He agreed to "serve his country" by immediately abandoning his activities as CEO of HR Access Middle East and Africa, a multinational specializing in human resources.
"I couldn't say no in the circumstances the country was experiencing. I expect results to be proud of. I'm committed to a short-term contract during the transition period," says the minister.
The task is difficult: employment policies under the Ben Ali regime are at the origin of the growing unemployment among young people, particularly those with higher education, and regional imbalances. A situation that became so unbearable that it triggered the popular uprisings of December and January.
The minister now wants to reassure and restore confidence in the future of Tunisian human capital. He willingly lets his optimism and faith in the values of the population show through.
In the race for employment, there's no point in rushing...
The messages he addresses to international investors—"because the country and the people deserve it"—reflect the particularity of this fifty-year-old who is committed to building his employment policy around Tunisians, as a connoisseur of his country's social customs.
Aware of the expectations his responsibilities crystallize, Saïd Aïdi does not want to give in to panic. The minister is aware of the realities, the imperatives, the record unemployment rates. Some measures have certainly been taken without delay, but "the impact must also be lasting" and reforms must be well-considered:
"It would be a major mistake to try to solve in six months the problems accumulated over ten years. Our guiding principle is not to mortgage the future. We must not make decisions guided solely by urgency."
Under Ben Ali, employment policy maintained a regional imbalance. Employment areas remained concentrated in the North and were limited to certain sectors of activity: administration, textile and food trade. The former Minister of Employment, Hatem Ben Salem, kept the dynamics of return to employment, retraining, training or apprenticeships at a standstill.
"The coastal areas and the interior [southern] areas of the country are the most affected. We are talking about 40% unemployment, including around Tunis. For overqualified people, we reach 48%", indicates the minister, concerned since the beginning of his mandate by these imbalances.
Shared efforts to stabilize unemployment
As an immediate measure, he called on each professional federation and each ministry to take the situation into account:
"Public sector recruitment is 20,000 people. Last year, it was 12,000. We have asked the different ministries to make an exceptional effort," notes Saïd Aïdi.
However ambitious they may be, reforms must be the result of a precise analysis of the difficulties specific to Tunisia, such as those of small businesses that generate jobs:
"We are working on a fundamental reform of micro-enterprises. Three problems to solve: personal contributions, required guarantees, and the viability of the project itself in areas where purchasing power is not assured," analyzes the minister, who constantly simplifies and clarifies what, for most, still seems too vague.
Short-term objectives are clear for the minister and the National Agency for Employment and Independent Work (Aneti): it is a matter of "stabilizing the unemployment rate."
Precise about the figures, Saïd Aïdi presented at the ninth World Investment Conference, held in La Baule (France) from May 25 to 27, the Tunisian national priorities of reducing unemployment and reducing regional disparities.
"We started with 520,000 job seekers, we are at 600,000 today and we expect to process 700,000 applications by the end of the summer. The recovery point will be in the fourth quarter of 2011. It will take us between three and five years to reach acceptable rates," explains Saïd Aïdi.
International financial aid will contribute to stabilizing the employment market in 2011. Even if it is addressed to the next government, the economic and social program presented at the Deauville G8 by Tunisia extends over the next five years with governance, human capital and reforms of the administration or the banking system as priority areas.
Finally, in its race for employment, Tunisia must face the obstacle of the Libyan conflict, which has brought back Tunisians settled in Libya and frozen all commercial exchanges at the border.
"Libya means a decrease or even a stop of activity for the southern regions. This cessation of activity means about 10% more job seekers," recalls the minister.
An active search contract with the State
The measures and actions taken by the ministry in the sub-regions are visible and adapted. The Active Search Contract, for example, aims to refocus efforts on the job seeker:
"It is a contract between the State and the job seeker. The idea is to achieve a personalized approach. Create retraining, training, and apprenticeship programs. Either reintegration, or retraining, a change of course in the career with training. Some graduates, even in a prosperous economy, have difficulty integrating into the labor market."
The active search contract revolves around entrepreneurship, which remains the engine of the country and for which pilot projects are being multiplied. The ministry also sought to strengthen the allocation system for graduates through the Amal program.
As a seasoned analyst, the minister has identified other unexplored employment sectors, such as renewable energies—"Tunisia is a land of sun and wind"—or the development of quality tourism inland, outside the coastal regions alone.
"We will support retraining sectors in activities with high viability potential and in future areas such as the internet, renewable energies, organic farming, crafts, inland tourism, rural tourism. Some regions have a rich cultural, archaeological and craft heritage."
This development of micro-enterprises is accompanied by a government emergency plan, which provided "250 million dinars [127 million euros, editor's note] for the sub-regions, of which 80% goes to disadvantaged regions and 20% to coastal regions," specifies Saïd Aïdi.
Will young Tunisians be patient?
Aware of the lack of confidence of Tunisians in their government, Saïd Aïdi works transparently and announces his actions as they are carried out, which is already enough to distinguish him from his predecessors.
"It is not only our population that is young, our freedom and our organization are too. We have to bring the country out of a coma that lasted twenty-three years."
Financial or structural aid can come from abroad and reverse or regulate migration, because Tunisia is not landlocked but benefits from existing partnerships.
"The objective is to encourage this migration through training abroad. In a structured way, by requiring prior training before allowing departure abroad. Whether through language training, or in the culture of the country in which they intend to go. But we only count 20,000 "illegal" migrants, and Tunisia has received 300,000 refugees."
On this sensitive issue of young Tunisian immigrants in Europe, the minister considers that "they did not have the patience or the confidence in what this government and the following ones could bring them. This confirms that we must place human beings at the center of all our concerns."
Saïd Aïdi is not a politician, he is above all a Tunisian citizen and a human resources specialist called in as reinforcement when the country needed him most. His skills in managing crises and sensitive issues make the current Employment Minister a valuable recruit for Tunisia. However, it is only a transitional period, and like part of the unemployed population, time is working against the minister.
Published June 8, 2011
Posted online June 8, 2011
slateafrique.com
Few people can name him, yet in Tunisia, he is the center of attention. Saïd Aïdi, appointed Minister of Professional Training and Employment in the transitional government, is a newcomer to politics, and he intends to respect his term of office:
"I have no political future. I was called for a six-month mission. My mission will end with the Constituent Assembly elections" on July 24, 2011, he assures.
A graduate of Polytechnique in France, where he settled and created Atlasys, an independent IT consulting firm in human resources, Saïd Aïdi was deeply honored when Tunisia called upon him. He agreed to "serve his country" by immediately abandoning his activities as CEO of HR Access Middle East and Africa, a multinational specializing in human resources.
"I couldn't say no in the circumstances the country was experiencing. I expect results to be proud of. I'm committed to a short-term contract during the transition period," says the minister.
The task is difficult: employment policies under the Ben Ali regime are at the origin of the growing unemployment among young people, particularly those with higher education, and regional imbalances. A situation that became so unbearable that it triggered the popular uprisings of December and January.
The minister now wants to reassure and restore confidence in the future of Tunisian human capital. He willingly lets his optimism and faith in the values of the population show through.
In the race for employment, there's no point in rushing...
The messages he addresses to international investors—"because the country and the people deserve it"—reflect the particularity of this fifty-year-old who is committed to building his employment policy around Tunisians, as a connoisseur of his country's social customs.
Aware of the expectations his responsibilities crystallize, Saïd Aïdi does not want to give in to panic. The minister is aware of the realities, the imperatives, the record unemployment rates. Some measures have certainly been taken without delay, but "the impact must also be lasting" and reforms must be well-considered:
"It would be a major mistake to try to solve in six months the problems accumulated over ten years. Our guiding principle is not to mortgage the future. We must not make decisions guided solely by urgency."
Under Ben Ali, employment policy maintained a regional imbalance. Employment areas remained concentrated in the North and were limited to certain sectors of activity: administration, textile and food trade. The former Minister of Employment, Hatem Ben Salem, kept the dynamics of return to employment, retraining, training or apprenticeships at a standstill.
"The coastal areas and the interior [southern] areas of the country are the most affected. We are talking about 40% unemployment, including around Tunis. For overqualified people, we reach 48%", indicates the minister, concerned since the beginning of his mandate by these imbalances.
Shared efforts to stabilize unemployment
As an immediate measure, he called on each professional federation and each ministry to take the situation into account:
"Public sector recruitment is 20,000 people. Last year, it was 12,000. We have asked the different ministries to make an exceptional effort," notes Saïd Aïdi.
However ambitious they may be, reforms must be the result of a precise analysis of the difficulties specific to Tunisia, such as those of small businesses that generate jobs:
"We are working on a fundamental reform of micro-enterprises. Three problems to solve: personal contributions, required guarantees, and the viability of the project itself in areas where purchasing power is not assured," analyzes the minister, who constantly simplifies and clarifies what, for most, still seems too vague.
Short-term objectives are clear for the minister and the National Agency for Employment and Independent Work (Aneti): it is a matter of "stabilizing the unemployment rate."
Precise about the figures, Saïd Aïdi presented at the ninth World Investment Conference, held in La Baule (France) from May 25 to 27, the Tunisian national priorities of reducing unemployment and reducing regional disparities.
"We started with 520,000 job seekers, we are at 600,000 today and we expect to process 700,000 applications by the end of the summer. The recovery point will be in the fourth quarter of 2011. It will take us between three and five years to reach acceptable rates," explains Saïd Aïdi.
International financial aid will contribute to stabilizing the employment market in 2011. Even if it is addressed to the next government, the economic and social program presented at the Deauville G8 by Tunisia extends over the next five years with governance, human capital and reforms of the administration or the banking system as priority areas.
Finally, in its race for employment, Tunisia must face the obstacle of the Libyan conflict, which has brought back Tunisians settled in Libya and frozen all commercial exchanges at the border.
"Libya means a decrease or even a stop of activity for the southern regions. This cessation of activity means about 10% more job seekers," recalls the minister.
An active search contract with the State
The measures and actions taken by the ministry in the sub-regions are visible and adapted. The Active Search Contract, for example, aims to refocus efforts on the job seeker:
"It is a contract between the State and the job seeker. The idea is to achieve a personalized approach. Create retraining, training, and apprenticeship programs. Either reintegration, or retraining, a change of course in the career with training. Some graduates, even in a prosperous economy, have difficulty integrating into the labor market."
The active search contract revolves around entrepreneurship, which remains the engine of the country and for which pilot projects are being multiplied. The ministry also sought to strengthen the allocation system for graduates through the Amal program.
As a seasoned analyst, the minister has identified other unexplored employment sectors, such as renewable energies—"Tunisia is a land of sun and wind"—or the development of quality tourism inland, outside the coastal regions alone.
"We will support retraining sectors in activities with high viability potential and in future areas such as the internet, renewable energies, organic farming, crafts, inland tourism, rural tourism. Some regions have a rich cultural, archaeological and craft heritage."
This development of micro-enterprises is accompanied by a government emergency plan, which provided "250 million dinars [127 million euros, editor's note] for the sub-regions, of which 80% goes to disadvantaged regions and 20% to coastal regions," specifies Saïd Aïdi.
Will young Tunisians be patient?
Aware of the lack of confidence of Tunisians in their government, Saïd Aïdi works transparently and announces his actions as they are carried out, which is already enough to distinguish him from his predecessors.
"It is not only our population that is young, our freedom and our organization are too. We have to bring the country out of a coma that lasted twenty-three years."
Financial or structural aid can come from abroad and reverse or regulate migration, because Tunisia is not landlocked but benefits from existing partnerships.
"The objective is to encourage this migration through training abroad. In a structured way, by requiring prior training before allowing departure abroad. Whether through language training, or in the culture of the country in which they intend to go. But we only count 20,000 "illegal" migrants, and Tunisia has received 300,000 refugees."
On this sensitive issue of young Tunisian immigrants in Europe, the minister considers that "they did not have the patience or the confidence in what this government and the following ones could bring them. This confirms that we must place human beings at the center of all our concerns."
Saïd Aïdi is not a politician, he is above all a Tunisian citizen and a human resources specialist called in as reinforcement when the country needed him most. His skills in managing crises and sensitive issues make the current Employment Minister a valuable recruit for Tunisia. However, it is only a transitional period, and like part of the unemployed population, time is working against the minister.
Published June 8, 2011
Posted online June 8, 2011
slateafrique.com
