Tunisia is the place to be today. We are in a very privileged location, in the crossroad of three main regions of the world. One of them is mature and the two others are emerging and by this I mean Europe, the Mediterranean basin and Africa.

Personally, I am an engineer graduated from two French ‘Grandes Ecoles’, which are prestigious educational establishments and I had the chance to work for a while on these three regions . Today, I would like to share with you my conviction that we have together, you, US firms and we, Tunisian ones, the capacity and the advantage to do a lot in a very profitable way.

I wear at least two hats: one, as the chairman of the board of a Paris- based Think Tank: The Institute for Economic Prospective in the Mediterranean Region, which works to bring the two shores of the Mediterranean closer via economy. We are used to say that Culture makes difference, Politics divide and only economy, investment and trade bring people closer.

The other hat is my own private business, based in Tunisia, where I chair and manage a multidisciplinary engineering and consulting firm comprising one hundred professionals. This business is established in Tunisia but is doing more than 80% of its turnover in 30 different sub-Saharan African countries.

Europe, our closest developed region is still the largest market in the world. The free trade agreement we have signed in Tunisia with the European Union for roughly 20 years now, grants us an unrestricted access to this common 450 million consumers market with a very high level of purchasing power.

We do a lot with that region: 80% of our foreign trade is to and from Europe and we can do even more if we find the way with US firms or others to establish more businesses in more sophisticated areas, such as services to the industry, financial, IT, agriculture, agribusiness, and automotive industry... We have the ingredients of competitiveness. We have the adequate human resources at very competitive wage levels, we have the track records, we have the needed experience, we have the appropriate infrastructures, we have the proximity and we have the free trade agreement. All we need is access to technology and to R&D. Yearly, 80000 among the 90000 new coming on the job market are university graduates and we need to provide them with jobs in line with their education and their aspirations.

The second region is the south and east Mediterranean shores. Close to Europe, this region needs 100 million new jobs in the coming 10 years. It needs investments in infrastructure with a value of at least 400 billion US dollars in the coming decade. These figures are quite ahead of governments and local private sector capacities. Associations with larger partners, having access to technology are inevitable for the coming years. Private Public Partnerships will be a way to meet all these huge needs. Not only Chinese and Indian companies are coming but also Brazilian. and Turkish ones are already there. Definitely, there is a place to take and either our private sector or our political authorities will favour the coming of European and US firms. We share with them the quest for good governance and intellectual property protection and we are convinced that our development has to be done within the respect of human rights and in accordance with the best practices.

The third region is definitely one of the most emerging regions of the world, Africa with already an average growth of more than 5% in 2013, which is assumed to be higher than 6% in 2014 and to sustain pace for a long period. The needs are huge in terms of infrastructure: roads, ports, airports, telecommunication, water, sanitation, education, health and job creation. All funding institutions are already there and very active. The United States is developing, among other initiatives, the Millennium Challenge Corporation and several US companies are already there and we, as Tunisian firm cooperate with some of them, bringing them the local knowledge, the adapted technological solutions and even the cultural dimension in all Arab and French speaking countries. For more than a decade, Private investment flow has been higher than aid flow. The region offers already a return on equity among the highest in the world and the cost of access to the market is still low.

For all these three regions, Tunisia is an ideal platform. Several experiences are already there as numerous success stories, in so different sectors such as private equity industry, engineering, consulting services, education, health, transportation and utilities. We can do together, US and Tunisian private firms more business and in better conditions. The ingredients of better profitability with high quality standards are there. And we, private sector, in Tunisia need cooperation and common involvement more than public aid, because our conviction is that growth and prosperity are the best rampart to extremism and violence. These are the seeds to grow and fulfill democracy and human rights respect.

Radhi Meddeb

Source: Leaders

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