The knowledge economy is a new branch of economics that has appeared recently. It is based on a new deeper understanding of the role of knowledge and human capital in the development of the economy and the advancement of society.
According to some researcher, the knowledge economy has basic requirements, the most important are:
- the restructuring of public spending and its rationalisation, and the significant increase in the spending allocated to knowledge from primary to higher education, together with focused attention on scientific research;
- the creation and development of high-quality human capital; the country has to create a favourable climate for knowledge, for it is no longer an intellectual luxury but has now become the most important element of production;
- investment is no longer restricted to equipment as was the case before, in the age of protected economies; skills and competencies are more valued now.
In the middle of these changes, emerged a Tunisian experience that started taking shape in the 1990’s. This experience is based on a comprehensive vision aimed at supporting the establishment of a knowledge economy. Accordingly, the scientific research and technological innovation – being an essential requisite for progress – has witnessed an important development in the level of structures, objectives and programs. It is intended to diversify the economic base in Tunisia and consolidate the competitiveness of the Tunisian enterprises.
It is well-known that adherence to the process of globalisation, which Tunisia is committed to, imposes a set of conditions which are necessary to reap the economic and social fruits of such adherence. The most important conditions are:
- Continuing the process of structural and institutional reform, taking into consideration the new environment of the world economy;
- Modernising the organisational and management methods inside enterprises to take advantage of information technology, reduce production costs, and make the best use of the human competencies;
- Developing the infrastructures to activate the local as well as the foreign investment;
- Seeking to make employment legislation flexible and suitable for a competitive market economy;
- Adopting a balanced wage policy to ensure competitiveness and at the same time as contributing towards the attraction of new foreign investment; and
- Developing and diversifying professional competencies through training courses.
In response to some of these conditions, Tunisia started from the mid 1990’s to implement a national program of upgrading. Launched in 1996, this was a ten year program designed to give the industrial enterprises and the service sectors a satisfactory level of competence to allow them to keep up with the international competition in the local and international markets.
The practical measures taken in the framework of the upgrading program consist of:
- Creating training centres in different specialties together with the consolidation of the technical capabilities of former centres;
- Establishing institutes and laboratories seeking to unify the standards of industrial production;
- Setting up of development funding and technology control;
- Creating assistance mechanisms for enterprises facing hardships.
As a result of these efforts, the sectors of knowledge content have increasingly contributed to the acceleration of the pace of development. These sectors contributed 20% of the GDP in 2006, and are expected to reach 21% in 2007. The desired objective is to reach 35% of the GDP by 2016. Source: ALARAB ONLINE, January 2007 |
