Tunisia relies on exports and services, especially human skills, by investing in the intangible and exporting them abroad, which unfortunately, once they migrate abroad, they shine with productivity and profitability double what they can achieve in Tunisia, President of the Council of Joint Chambers in Tunisia, Nacif Belkhiria said in a statement to Mosaïque FM on Friday.
“This is in addition to the success of Tunisian startups in making substantial profits, as the law does not allow this, so we must be vigilant to the requirements of investment, the global market and the mechanisms for providing hard currency,” he added.
He argued that preserving Tunisia’s capacities and skilled workers requires the removal of obstacles within the foreign exchange code, ‘which is causing us to lose dozens of project holders and startups who migrate to countries that offer better life-saving conditions’.
It is paradoxical that, at the same time, there are offices of foreign countries in Tunisia, licensed by the Tunisian state, “which attract Tunisian skilled workers and expertise directly from universities, offering them the opportunity to complete their studies in their companies abroad and keeping them on with direct employment contracts,” he lamented.
He pointed out that 95% of media engineers at the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology receive a contract with a foreign company as soon as they complete their final year project.
“It is therefore important to preserve these skilled workers so that they invest their energies in our country, but they must be encouraged and incentivized by a foreign exchange code and specific investment laws,” he said.