The IACE has called for the introduction of a new productive pact aimed at rebuilding an entrepreneurial model based on competitiveness, transparency, and sustainability.
In the first edition of the National Report on Enterprise in Tunisia, published on Thursday, the IACE stated that this pact should be built around three priorities: strengthening productivity and achieving critical scale in the private sector by supporting the upgrading of micro-enterprises into innovative SMEs; reforming the governance and performance of public enterprises to reduce their budgetary burden; and stimulating industrial and technological investment, an essential condition for inclusive and sustainable growth.
The report depicts a Tunisian economy in transition, dominated by micro-enterprises, supported by a fiscally central yet still fragile private sector, and constrained by a public sector that is costly in budgetary terms.
By the end of 2023, out of a total of 824,593 enterprises, nearly 87.5% were structures with no employees, reflecting an economy centered on micro self-employment and independent work.
Employer enterprises numbered 103,518 units, broken down into 89,958 micro-enterprises (87% of all employer enterprises), 12,663 SMEs (12.23%), and 897 large companies (0.87%).
These private enterprises contribute 58.7% of the total value added of the economy, compared with 10.5% for public enterprises.
They also account for 79.2% of total corporate investment (an average of TND 10,513 million per year) and 43% of national formal employment (around 1.13 million employees).
In recent years, private enterprises have also generated nearly 53% of total tax revenues on average. In 2024, only 103,756 companies filed tax returns with the Directorate General of Taxes, compared with 113,137 in 2023, a decline of 8.3% in the number of filers in one year.
This trend highlights an erosion of the tax base and weaknesses in formalization, particularly in trade and services.
Strengthening links between SMEs and large companies
Another finding from delegations with lower Regional Development Index (RDI) scores between 2021 and 2024 shows that the impact of enterprises depends less on the total number of units than on the presence of a core of employer SMEs and, ideally, one or two large anchor companies.
In practical terms, delegations with 2,000–3,600 production units but no mature SMEs or large companies remain at the bottom of the rankings, indicating that the proliferation of low-productivity and often informal micro-units does not translate into formal employment or local value added.
Conversely, delegations with a core of SMEs reaching critical employment thresholds (50 to 100+ jobs) improve their indicators more rapidly, especially when a large company anchors value chains and diffuses standards, markets, and skills.
Micro-enterprises remain the dominant base of Tunisia’s economic fabric. Although their number grew by 5.2% between 2021 and 2023, their economic weight remains limited, accounting for only 17.8% of salaried employment and around 3% of direct tax contributions.
Despite their crucial social role and function as a buffer against unemployment, micro-enterprises continue to face constraints related to financing, productivity, and formalization, which hinder their transition into more robust structures.
SMEs represent a strategic link in the productive system. They account for 38.3% of total employment and act as an intermediate engine between micro-activities and large enterprises.
Between 2021 and 2023, their growth remained modest (+3.7%), reflecting low structural mobility and difficulties in accessing finance and innovation. Nevertheless, their contribution to the stability of formal employment and economic diversification remains significant.
Large enterprises occupy a strategic position in the Tunisian economy. They account for 44% of salaried employment and dominate industrial production, exports, and research and development.
Their workforce grew by 10.6% between 2021 and 2023, reflecting economic resilience and post-crisis adaptability. While their role is crucial in creating skilled jobs and enhancing external competitiveness, their limited number underscores the need to strengthen linkages between SMEs and large companies to promote productive integration and more balanced regional growth.
Public enterprises: 22.13% of average budget deficit
By contrast, public enterprises, although strategic in core sectors, contribute only 4% of formal employment and generate an average budgetary burden equivalent to 22.13% of the state’s deficit, with an annual deficit of nearly TND 2,981 million and average public subsidies of TND 9,809 million.
In 2022, this share even peaked at 62.7%, highlighting the growing budgetary impact of the public sector. The report also notes that the average annual remuneration of a public enterprise employee reaches TND 45,217, while average public subsidies amount to TND 9,809 million per year, for an aggregated deficit of nearly TND 2,981 million.
These imbalances underscore the need to rethink the governance and financial viability of public enterprises, whose net contribution to the budget remains negative, while consolidating the private sector’s tax base.
The report recommends broadening the corporate tax base through the formalization of micro-enterprises, the digitalization of taxation, and more effective action against underreporting and informal competition.
Ultimately, the fiscal sustainability of Tunisia’s economic model depends on rebalancing private-sector tax yields and rationalizing transfers to the public sector.
