The Tunisian Economy Needs a New Generation of Skills
The Tunisian economy today needs a new generation of skills capable of taking over and assuming its responsibilities with "rigor and dignity", as affirmed by the President of the Republic. A generation that is "motivated and impatient to be empowered to serve the country's strategic interests".
The economy also needs to find a solution to the massive brain drain and reverse the trend quickly to regain a certain amount of human added value. Today, socioeconomic performance requires not only launching programs or editing texts, but also identifying the right profiles capable of applying and executing them, and ensuring their successful outcome.
In fact, when receiving the Head of Government on Monday, the President of the Republic reaffirmed that "the essential thing is not only in the text itself, but also in the conscience of those who work, with probity, to achieve its objectives".
It must be recognized that the lack of involvement, disengagement, and even incompetence of some officials have ultimately penalized the proper functioning of many programs and the implementation of certain laws, compromising the recovery that is beginning to take shape. The file of confiscated assets, despite the multiple provisions retained and the new implementation texts edited, the program for restructuring public enterprises, or the problem of the parallel market, are just a few examples of ongoing or blocked projects. Just like the projects of energy transition, digitalization, or greening of the economy.
Planning and Execution
It is evident, therefore, that this administrative inefficiency, in general, is complicating the implementation of the reforms undertaken and slowing down, consequently, economic growth. An unacceptable attitude that justifies the repeated calls of the Head of State to put a definitive end to this gap between planning and execution, through the commitment of new regulatory measures.
And it is precisely towards the new generation, and particularly towards our new generation of skills and young graduates, that the focus is directed. This generation is, as Kaïs Saïed often affirms, largely motivated and especially impatient to be "empowered to serve the country's strategic interests".
In fact, on October 13, the President stated, during an interview with the Head of Government, that responsibilities are "not privileges or banquets, but charges to be assumed with rigor and loyalty".
Therefore, the future belongs to our youth, "to whom we must open the doors so that they can participate, with their enthusiasm and dedication, in the building of a Tunisia of justice, freedom, and dignity".
In addition to this question of youth, the opportunities are still numerous. We think, in particular, of the brain drain, especially high skills, which continues to disadvantage the Tunisian economy by depriving it of their considerable contribution.
Hence the imperative to reverse the trend by guaranteeing a favorable environment for the return of these skills. A return that could only be beneficial.
This option is all the more important since the phenomenon is taking, regularly, worrying proportions. According to the National Observatory of Migration, around 100,000 higher education graduates have left the country between 2015 and 2023. This is too much for a nation seeking human added value.
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