20100405
ALLAFRICA

Tunis — President Ben Ali conferred on Monday, with the Prime Minister, Mr. Mohamed Ghannouchi.

The meeting focused on the upgrading program services, in light of the presidential measures taken to boost investment in this sector as well as the added value of its different components and broaden their export prospects.

In this connection, the President of the Republic recommended to launch the pilot phase targeting 100 companies operating in the services sector.

He recommended to hold national and regional conferences in order to sensitize stakeholders to the importance of their adhering to this program and to devise a comprehensive strategy that would associate the sector's professionals and experts with a view to boost services exportation.

The Head of State also stressed the need to make the most of the available incentives to develop the services sector's competitiveness and increase its contribution to the growth rate and speeding up the pace of job creation, mainly for the benefit of university graduates.

President Ben Ali also focused on the progress of the development strategy of the communication technologies sector, reiterating his interest in improving Tunisia's international rating in this sector, by drawing on the available potentials to strengthen the efficiency and quality of this sector's services and consolidate components of the knowledge economy and information society.

In this regard, President Ben Ali recommended to duly follow- up development and modernization of the communication infrastructure through the setting up of a optic fiber network within the major services zones, so as to provide a broadband Internet connection, concurrently with the expansion of the technological spaces to house companies operating in the transfer of network-based services dedicated to foreign sides to meet the growing demands of investors in this area.

He also recommended gathering all conditions that would ensure success of the training program which is crowned with skills certificates in several specialties related to information and communication technologies, as part of a partnership between the public and private sectors.