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The Consolidation of Structural Adjustment: The Eighth Development Plan, 1992–1996

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Economic and Political change in Tunisia

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Abstract

By the time that the Eighth Development Plan was being drawn up, structural adjustment programmes had been implemented around the globe with varying results. Critiques of the programmes had emerged and international academic journals were full of commentary on the impact of the changing international environment on SAPs, their failures with regard to unemployment and poverty, and the importance of designing programmes with reference to the specificities of individual countries rather than imposing a blanket approach.

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Notes

  1. For all the grand plans, the industrial zones have failed to live up to expectations. Regional governorates have been slow to respond to the infrastructural needs of such zones and frustrated critics have described them as deformed mushrooms, which spring up with little relation to their environment and which contribute to regional economic anarchy. See ‘Une situation anarchique’, Réalités, 31 March-6 April 1995, pp. 14— 15.

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  2. Speech by President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, Carthage 12 June 1993. See Ministère du Plan et du Développement Regional, Incitatons Aux Investissements: Dispositions légales et réglementaires (Tunis, 1994), p. 3.

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  3. Z. Lasta, ‘Les industries totalement exportatrices du Grand Tunis’, Revue Tunisienne de Geographie (1994), No. 25, pp. 76–118.

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  4. Interview with Mohammed Ghannouchi in L’Economiste Maghrebin 30 March-12 April 1994, pp. 16–17.

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  5. Fethi Merdassi, Secretary of State for International Co-operation and Investment, claimed FDI figures of TD99 million in 1995 and TD167 million in 1996. See Royal Instutute for International Affairs/UK Government/European Commission conference, Opportunities for Investment in the Mediterranean Region (London, 1997).

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  6. Economist Intelligence Unit, Tunisia: Country Report (1996), Nos. 3& 4.

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  7. It should be noted, however, that contracts to underwrite the privatization of just two firms were not awarded until August 1997.

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  8. The government had a preference for the sale of shares to employees, hoping thereby to mobilise domestic savings. The rapid rise of prices on the stock market, however, only invited the quick sale of such shares and did not lead to any genuine worker ownership.

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  16. This figure was put at 6.3 per cent by the Banque de Tunisie in its Rapport Annuel 1995 (Tunis, 1996), p. 5.

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  25. This conclusion was reached by IBCA, a London-based ratings agency which awarded a BBB- rating to Tunisia in early 1996. The investment grade reflected confidence in investment security but with a need for careful observation of events within. It was reported in Economist Intelligence Unit, Tunisia: Country Report(1996), No. 1, p. 18.

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  28. Fethi Merdassi, Secretary of State for International Cooperation and Foreign Investment, estimated that the middle class accounted for over 60 per cent of the population in 1997. See interview with Fethi Merdassi, Tunisia News, 29 March 1997, p. 6.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Durham, UK

    Emma C. Murphy (Lecturer in Middle East Politics)

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  1. Emma C. Murphy
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© 1999 Emma C. Murphy

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Murphy, E.C. (1999). The Consolidation of Structural Adjustment: The Eighth Development Plan, 1992–1996. In: Economic and Political change in Tunisia. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333983584_6

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