HISTORY

The history of Tunisia goes back to more than 3.000 years. A succession of various civilisations – Berber, Punic, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Spanish, Turkish, and French- have created a mixture which has shaped the Tunisian personality, steeping it with a spirit of tolerance and openness.

Tunisia has a surface area of 162,155 square kilometers (of which 25,000 square kilometers is desert) and borders on the Mediterranean. Its Mediterranean coast is 1.300 kilometers long and includes five gulfs. Tunisia is also equipped with a significant maritime and air transportation network linking it to Europe. It stands a crossroad to Europe on the one hand and the Middle-East and Africa on the other.

THE TUNISIAN ECONOMY:

The Tunisian economy is mainly based on the sectors of agriculture, tourism, textile exports, phosphates and petroleum. Thanks to the structural adjustment programme, it was possible for the Tunisian economy to restore major structural balances and to create a modern and diversified market economy, which now relies on a fruitful agricutural sector, an ever expanding manufacturing industry, particularly for export-oriented businesses, and a particularly dynamic tertiary sector.

Tunisia’s economic policy has been based for a number of years on supporting investment and reinforcing production and exports. This action is part of the country’s policy for increasing the competitiveness of local products and the opening up of the country to global free exchange. An upgrading scheme is designed to these effects. Investment incentives within this scheme have attracted investors from the European Union, Japan and the United States.

During these past years, Tunisia has been frequently cited by international financial institutions as being a "model" to follow, in tribute to the success of its structural adjustment program. Tunisia has developed a trading environment based on :

Aliberal and competitive economy.
Skilled and competitive labor.
A good infrastructure.
An investment friendly-environment.
The country has gained the confidence of its trading partners world-wide.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS:

Tunisia enjoys a modern telecommunication system. A large program of actions aiming at using and making widespread modern means of telecommunications has been launched these last years. The average annual growth rate of the network has gone through a significant growth of 17%.
An overall approach to information technologies aims at giving access to modern means of telecommunications for the largest possible number of people. This is done through access rates reductions for telephone and internet, promoting the use of internet among the families and the opening of public web sites access.

Marketing the Tunisian Brand

Cepex’ web site represents an opportunity to market renowned Tunisian products such as Tunisian olive oil or Deglet Nour dates, or manufactured products produced according to international norms within Tunisia's textile industry, food-manufacturing and electromechanical industries.

CEPEX is part of an inter-related series of initiatives aimed at exploiting and promoting the multitude of possibilities of the Tunisian market, one of the world's promising emerging markets, located at a highly dynamic trading zone involving Europe, the Maghreb, Africa and the Arab nations.