How to promote an inclusive economy  for society and business in Tunisia? By Mohamed Ben Hamed.

This short publication marks the launch of the efforts of I.C.I Group to advance tunisian enterprises for an inclusive economy and seeks to elevate the attention to ways this economy can improve society’s standard of living and reduce exclusion and poverty as well as opportunities for business for market expansion.

More than even and because Coronavirus pandemic and economical crisis, millions of Tunisian citizens can’t today access to essential products and services including goods, basic healthcare, protected environment, energy and communication technology, thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises suffer from the lack of a serene environment in order to develop their activities and a lot of women and young graduates face social inequality, unemployment, precarity and exclusion from the work market.

So how can the wellbeing of the population and the business environment for companies be improved?What new model of economic and social development should be adopted? What would be the overarching approach that should drive this model of economic and social development?

Taking into account the inclusive development, distant countries such as Australia, the Netherlands, Sweden, Scotland, or closer to home such as Italy, have  responded to those questions by realizing that their economic policies must first and foremost ensure long-term growth that is high enough to safeguard the environment, to give priority to health, to overcome social inequalities, to reduce poverty and exclusion, to stimulate research and development and innovation, to encourage companies to invest, to create jobs and value.

Conversly, in Tunisia, the State continues to distinguish itself by a flagrant absence of a strategic vision of long-term economic and social development and continues to exhaust its financial resources without tangible results to revive the economy,,to reduce the country’s debt, to relaunch investments,to reduce regional disparity and poverty,to protect the population from the loss of jobs in a country where 3/4 of the inhabitants depend on their salaries to live and to overcome social inequalities.

Conversly also and despite the impact of Covid-19 pandemic, only the Tunisian private sector still has the capital, competences, capacity for innovation and ability to put ideas into action that are crucial to the emergence of an inclusive economy in which all citizens – men and women – are able to participate in, benefit from and contribute to national and regional development, to create good jobs and to pay competitive salary and benefits which enable employees to meet basic needs and improve their standard of living and to ensure an effective integration of the marginalized populations.

So,while waiting for the Tunisian State to reinvent itself, undertake effective and serious structural reforms and to become aware that any economic development model that does not take inclusion into account is doomed to failure, we are all  – individuals and entrepreneurs –  and according to our skills and means called upon each in our own to promote the emergence of an inclusive economy into our country that will bring prosperity, social well-being and sustainable economic growth.