2023-09-17 09:45:31
The Ministries of Economy and Finance are working together on a restructuring project for so-called “classified” SMEs.
The news will certainly make the leaders of the affected companies who are in a state of despair shudder: a new financing line will soon be open to companies in crisis. Miraculous from the exogenous shocks that have hit the country in recent years, most Tunisian SMEs are struggling. New funding will undoubtedly bring them a breath of fresh air and enable them to ensure the continuity of their activities.
This is, in any case, what Mhammed Ben Abid, Director General of Business Climate at the Ministry of Economy and Planning, said in a statement given to The Press. On the sidelines of the conference “Innovation for impact” which was organized on September 15 and 16 by the Junior Chamber International (JCI), Ben Abid announced that the Ministry of Economy is currently working, in collaboration with the Ministry of Finance and the CDC, on rescuing businesses through the restructuring of so-called “classified” SMEs.
According to Nejia Ghrabi, general director of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, a new financing line with a target size of 500 million dinars was initiated for this purpose. “The CDC, being a countercyclical investment player which intervenes especially during periods of crisis, proposed, as part of the emergency funds after the Covid crisis, to set up 5 emergency funds, one of which was fully invested. 100 million dinars were thus invested in the restructuring funds. Until now, we have participated in three restructuring funds and the need is much greater, it is for this reason that we have initiated, as part of the economic recovery measures, another line of financing.
This line will be supplied with 200 million dinars but the target size is 500 million dinars. In the same way, we are going to finance restructuring funds which will save SMEs,” she explained in a statement to The Press.
She added that the Fund is currently in the signing phase with the Fades (Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development) which is the first donor to join the CDC and which has injected 40 million dollars into the restructuring fund. “We already have funds in the pipeline that have already been set up and others in the process of being set up. Our objective is to finance not only restructuring, but also the recovery of SMEs,” she concluded.
What about the national strategy for improving the business climate?
Asked about the progress of the national strategy for improving the business climate which was announced in January 2023, Ben Abid indicated that, overall, the project to reform the business environment is progressing at a good pace. To date, 36 measures of various types have been implemented. Among these main measures, the obligation to involve the private sector in the design of new regulations relating to the public market.
The manager also added that, for the sake of efficiency, the ministry has adopted a new work methodology called “Scrum” which will make it possible to optimize the work between the various stakeholders (50 ministerial departments) involved in strategy execution. It should be remembered that the said strategy includes 185 measures which cover all the themes of the business climate retracing the life cycle of a company.
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