Chaired by the Head of State, the Cabinet meeting held, on Tuesday, examined a strategy to support economic enterprises experiencing a slowdown in their activity due to the international financial and economic crisis and another one aiming at enhancing competitiveness and backing up the economic drive in implementation of the decision announced by the Head of State in his address on November 7, 2008.
Two sets of measures have been taken. First, measures to support enterprises recording a slowdown in their activity, measures that are somehow curative ones. Second, measures aiming at increasing competitiveness and boosting economic activity and thus are prospective ones.
For now, this large plan of action, whose financial scope is not yet known, extends over a period of 6 months. This period is only part of the plan devised to support companies experiencing a slowdown in their activity. For Tunisia which , as all countries affected, has little visibility on the duration of the crisis, this 6 months period could be extended as some measures could be strengthened or simply abandoned. This rebalancing will be carried out on the basis of the report to be drawn up every semester by a ministerial follow up committee tasked to monitor the furtherance of the implementation of this plan of action and, where appropriate, to resize and consolidate all actions that are part of this important plan of action, the first of its kind in Tunisia.
The plan of action has been mapped in favour of enterprises, but also targets the employees of these companies, the future of their jobs and strengthening economic growth all over the country. It will be financed by money that will not be devoted to subsidizing petroleum products, following the falling prices in the world market, provided that this decline will continue.
