Tunisia ICT Competitiveness Project

The Tunisia Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Competitiveness Project focused partly on stimulating ICT entrepreneurship and company development through:

• Partnering with ICT and ICT-enabled companies to provide enterprise-level technical assistance and training
• Partnering with financial institutions to facilitate access to finance and equity investment.
• Assisting companies in identifying, developing, and penetrating export markets
• Identifying six non-ICT sectors with growth potential and providing companies with jobs to fill in those sectors, cost-shared training and technical assistance to help them to upgrade.

Of the 83 enterprises and groups assisted by the USAID Project team, 45 were ICT firms and the remaining firms were 38 “ICT-enabled firms” operating in sectors such as apparel and textiles, specialty foods, and manufacturing. Technical assistance included strategic/business planning, market development, production planning, quality control, and financial management. Training covered soft skills and technical skills, mainly for newly recruiting staff.

Of the 83 enterprises and groups assisted by the USAID Project team, 45 were ICT firms and the remaining firms were 38 “ICT-enabled firms” operating in sectors such as apparel and textiles, specialty foods, and manufacturing. Technical assistance included strategic/business planning, market development, production planning, quality control, and financial management. Training covered soft skills and technical skills, mainly for newly recruiting staff.

The Tunisia Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Competitiveness Project developed ICT policy and regulatory reform through:

• Assess major ICT-relevant laws and regulations.
• Identify the legal and regulatory constraints impeding ICT and ICT-enabled growth.
• Support the development of ICT policy and regulatory reform strategy

The project worked in the following areas: business registration and investment, telecommunications, fiscal reform, and labor.

The Tunisia Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Competitiveness Project focused partly on growing and Developing the Workforce through:

• Partnering with companies to provide training opportunities linked to job placement
• Improving workforce skills to increase employability
• Supporting enhancements to ICT higher education to better meet the needs of employers
• Providing confidence skills gap training for job candidates
• Developing labor market supply and demand data and create employment events

Relying heavily on the rich pool of local human resource development trainers, the Project contracted with ten qualified Tunisian training organizations to deliver co-financed training for newly recruited employees, primarily in soft skills but also in critical technical areas such as environmental norms and safety. Under the co-financed training program, over 40 courses were offered to over 800 new recruits, some of whom participated in more than one course.

The Project established six career centers at universities across Tunisia. The launches were milestone events not only for participating higher learning institutions but the country as a whole, representing the first time that such centers, focused on the needs of both students and enterprises, were ever established in Tunisia.

In support of enterprise expansion and job growth, the Project worked with leading financial institutions to increase the availability of debt and equity capital for SMEs. The Project embedded short-term advisors in several financial institutions (banks and private equity funds) to assist them in improving their capacity to provide financial services to SMEs.