Prime Minister Najla Bouden expressed, on Tuesday, the ambition to transform Tunisia into a regional hub for innovation and intelligence, in line with the developments that characterize today’s global economy and which are essentially based on the knowledge economy and innovation.
Closing a day organised by the Prime Ministry at Dar Dhiafa in Carthage to present the main results of the first innovation conference held in November 2022, she said that these conferences reflect the orientation taken by the government to promote technology and national intelligence.
She also considered that innovation is the best lever to ensure the resilience of the national economy in the face of the multiple crises that are shaking the world and to achieve the national objectives, especially in terms of economic, social and financial inclusion, food self-sufficiency, energy transition, digitization of services, development of the health system, enhancement of heritage …
She stressed the importance of the roadmap resulting from the first conference on innovation, which would promote the transformation of the country into a regional hub for innovation, intelligence and initiative, the emergence of a new innovative economic fabric, better positioning of national companies and startups and the restoration of confidence in the country’s capabilities and future.
The first innovation conference, launched on November 3, 2022, is part of the national reform programme announced on June 3, 2022. These first conferences aim at federating all national efforts (public, private, academic) in order to improve the climate of innovation in Tunisia in a sustainable way.
More than 150 public and private participants took part in these conferences with strong regional and associative participation and a remote mobilisation of the diaspora. Actors from the innovation ecosystems, R&D and start-ups participated in all the workshops in a non-uniform manner.
The conference was held in three phases, with a Sector Day on November 3, 2022, aimed at identifying the needs of the sectors concerned (Health & Social Affairs, Agriculture, Water Resources & Fisheries, Education, Higher Education, Employment & Training, Industry & Energy, Finance, Trade, Transport, Equipment & Environment, Tourism & Culture, ICT & Scientific Research, Family, Women, Children & Seniors), in terms of innovation and identifying possible projects in this area. On November 9, 2022, a thematic day was organised to identify the cross-cutting measures to be taken to promote the climate of innovation in order to close today with a day of restitution and synthesis of innovative projects, sectoral measures and cross-cutting measures.
These conferences made it possible to identify around 25 cross-cutting measures for the climate of innovation, 126 innovative sectoral projects, more than 100 sectoral measures, 20 measures linked to the Start-up Act, 36 measures common to the business climate approach and a proposal for a governance framework for innovation.
The cross-cutting measures are divided into three themes, namely institutionalisation, market access and resources.
In terms of institutionalisation, the measures identified consist of creating a multisectoral body responsible for innovation under the presidency of the government with an operational unit, establishing public and private governance of innovation, integrating the monitoring of business climate reforms into the framework of the operational unit for innovation, define priority innovation topics, involve the private sector in the governance of R&D structures and strengthen mobility towards companies, launch a platform for mandatory declaration of innovation and R&D work and launch a programme to improve Tunisia’s ranking in the GII (Global Innovation Index) with the involvement of the private sector.
The aim is also to orient economic diplomacy and international cooperation towards innovation and R&D, to promote the image of Tunisia as a technological hub, innovation and R&D on a regional scale, to communicate innovation to the population in order to establish a culture of innovation and to set up a systemic and transversal approach to quality/ESG (standards and certifications/labels).
In terms of resources, the conference emphasised the need to promote the development of the national intellectual protection ecosystem, support innovative researchers in the process of obtaining patents (recognition of new occupations), develop the innovation ecosystem in Tunisian universities, evaluate the threshold of research tax credits, set up a “Tunisia Creative” label, implement a “Tunisia Creative” label and to develop a “Tunisia Innovation” label, financing and support, develop the innovation ecosystem in Tunisian universities, evaluate the threshold of research premiums/tax credits, set up a “Creative Tunisia” label, to implement the “Creative Tunisia” visa, trace the Appellations of Controlled Origin (AOC) of Tunisian products. In addition, the aim is to set up and activate a fund for innovation, establish a mandatory framework for open data with a priority list and create a data hub for public data.
Regarding market access, the measures adopted are based on the promotion of Branding Tunisia through economic diplomacy, the simplification of customs procedures for projects labelled “Creative Tunisia”, the creation of a national platform of innovative projects, products and services and the completion of the implementation of the status of self-entrepreneur.
In addition, about twenty measures favourable to startups are being examined in preparation for a new version of the Startup Act better adapted to the new needs of startups.
During this day of restitution, the representatives of the ministries present (15 departments) and the sectoral teams participating in these conferences presented 126 innovative projects involving the various ministerial departments and having the overall objective of supporting the orientation towards the knowledge economy undertaken by the government.
These projects cover all sectors of activity (health, trade, industry, energy, finance, environment, equipment, agriculture, social affairs, education and higher education, tourism and culture, technology and research, women, etc.) and aim to revolutionise the lives of Tunisians.
