Brahim Chebili, Director General of manufacturing industries at the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining was optimistic about the development of the industrial sector’s exports to 10% during the period 2016/2020 from 8.3% currently. He also said that removing the energy subsidy is considered for certain sectors, but this has not yet been formalized given the current environment.
Interview:
Can you draw up an inventory of manufacturing industries for the last months of the current year?
At first it should be remembered that manufacturing industries contribute up to 15% of GDP with most products intended for export. Industrial exports account for about 82% of the total Tunisian exports in terms of goods.
The sector currently has about 5,638 companies employing 514,656 people, knowing that exports reached a value of about 23.665 billion dinars in 2014 and the guidance ratio varies between 10 and 11%.
The major sectors are electrical engineering industries, the leading export sector in Tunisia. Moreover, exports in the eight months of the current year accounted for 45.07% of the overall exports of manufacturing industries, followed by the textile sector (23%),) the food industries sector; then there are other sectors like pharmaceutical industries.
An 8.3% growth was recorded in the industrial export in the first 8 months of 2015, with an increase in terms of reported investments by 0.5%, equivalent to 1,714 million dinars.
What has caused this evolution?
This increase takes place in a stable environment where Tunisia has managed to successfully complete elections and ensure social stability despite the incidents that occurred recently. In fact, a slight increase was recorded in all the sector’s indicators in terms of employment, investment or even at the level of export.
This is why we remain optimistic that further improvements are expected in 2016 and even for the period 2016/2020. With this optimism, we hope to achieve significant rises around 10% in terms of exports and value added.
Some sectors are considered buoyant and they are already targeted by your department … Have you an adequate strategy in order to keep them?
We have witnessed over the recent years the emergence of some sectors such as the aviation industry and the pharmaceutical, biological and medical industries. Add to that other sectors that are being developed such as technical plastics and technical textiles.
Therefore increased attention is given in our department to these specific sectors and strategies will be implemented for the benefit of those areas.
For example, a strategy for the aviation sector was submitted to the Government to obtain specific advantages with the objective of encouraging more investors.
These benefits include the investment premium and facilitation of customs and administrative procedures…
How do you justify the choice of the aviation sector?
We have started with the aviation industry and we will build later on other sectors such as the pharmaceutical industry and the engineering plastic component.
We will process sector by sector and we will also require specific measures for each high-value field.
It should be noted that at the level of mechanical and electrical industries, we develop 49% of all industrial exports.
Regarding the aviation industry, it has rapidly grown especially during the last decade. Indeed, the number of jobs has multiplied by 9, from 1,300 in 2004 to 12,927 in 2014. Still, the number of the companies multiplied by six to 70 against 16 in 2014 while exports have multiplied by 10 from 25 million dinars to 529 million dinars during the same period.
Internationally, the sector is well positioned particularly in terms of maintenance. It is a niche market in full development and with high technological content. It is important given that forecasts indicate the doubling of the global civil aircraft fleet to 36,000 aircraft in 2025 from 18,000 currently.
For the pharmaceutical industry, an increase was recorded in terms of creation and expansion of several units especially after the Revolution when other companies have slammed their doors because of social demands.
This sector is based on two branches. The first relates to the manufacture of drugs. It consists of 38 units generating 4,900 jobs with a turnover of around 500 million dinars. The development of this activity has ensured market coverage and thereafter self-sufficiency in medicines by around 47%. That is why it is planned to increase this rate to bring it to 60% by the end of 2020.
For the second branch on the manufacture of medical devices, it is formed by 22 companies employing 3,600 people. This branch has already made 300 million dinars in terms of turnover of which 200 million are for export.
Can you give us an overview of the main lines of development of these sectors in the draft five-year plan (2016/2020)?
We have started our work with a diagnosis over the 2011-2015 period. This allowed dissecting a number of problems and that is why we have focused on several axes.
For this purpose, an interest is taken in programs aimed at increasing competitiveness and enhancing the quality of products in Tunisia. There is also the upgrading program, the national quality program and that of research, and development and the exploitation of research results as well as the Program to Support the Competitiveness of Enterprises (PCAM).
Our interest will also focus on other issues such as training in growth sectors and support of other companies that are in trouble, knowing that their number is limited.
In that plan, we are working on the already low supervision rate ranging between 10 and 11%.
Our goal is to reach 14% and that in order to promote some creative sectors like advanced countries such as France where the rate of supervision in the industrial sector is estimated at 18%.
Work will also focus on reported projects whose implementation rate is around 50%. Our goal is to reach 60%
Is it possible to achieve these objectives in this economy considered sluggish?
We have made predictions of evolution for 2011-2015, which are based on the figures for 2015 and the evolution made in 2014-2015 (first 8 months).
We have set achievable, but also optimistic, forecasts.
Forecasts are achievable, but how?
They are achievable, since we have achieved these figures in previous plans (10th and 11th Plans). Despite the global financial crisis (2007-2009), we have made performance in terms of exports of around 7.6%. Our goal for the future period is to reach 10 or 11% in 2020 against 6% in 2016 and 5% in 2015 to have an average of around 8.5% in 2016-2020.
The removal of the subsidy on cement plants was described as positive. Do you consider extending this experience to other sectors?
The removal of the energy subsidy has affected primarily cement, considered an energy intensive sector in Tunisia.
Other areas are now weaker such as red brick, ceramics … and that is why we have set a deadline of 3 and 4 years for the necessary measures to be taken to streamline the use of energy in their factories and implement cogeneration.
We are studying the removal of energy subsidy for some sectors, but this has not yet been formalized…
