Prime Minister Youssef Chahed said on Friday that ailing public companies needed to be restructured quickly, as Tunisia is trying to overcome an economic crisis and a budget deficit.
“I will not accept to maintain my post to be a false witness and to postpone reforms”, Prime Minister Youssef Chahed told the House of People’s Representatives (HPR). He said public companies had accumulated losses worth 6.5 billion Tunisian dinars ($2.72 billion).
“The cost of reform is expensive but the cost of non-reform is much more expensive,” he said, underlining that the state should only run companies in vital sectors.
The sale of a number of public companies in non-strategic competitive sectors would be a solution to mobilise resources for the benefit of the State treasury, and consequently reduce domestic and foreign borrowing, said Premier Youssef Chahed.
The Prime Minister announced the launching, in the coming weeks, of a public enterprise reform programme based on a global vision for the restructuring of these companies so that they have a positive financial return for the benefit of the entire national community, while preserving the principle of social peace, in addition to the sustainability of jobs and the protection of workers’ rights.
TunisianMonitorOnline (MNHN)
