ICT’s : Davos Forum ranks Tunisia first in Maghreb and Africa
African Manager

Tunisia has been ranked, for the third year in a row, by the Davos World Report on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs, 2008-2009), first on the Maghreb and African levels, and 38th on the world scale, out a total of 134 countries.

With a 4.34-score, Tunisia has kept its regional standing, given the fact that the number of the classified countries went up by 12 in relation to the previous edition which counted 122 countries.

The report, an authoritative reference in matters of investment in the ICTs area, conducts its survey on three basic elements, namely the country's political and economic environment, its technological level and the degree of ICTs utilisation.
In the present report, Tunisia is ahead of such countries like Hungary (41st), Italy (45th), Greece (55th), Romania (58th), Brazil (59th), Turkey (61st) and Poland (69th). At the African level, Tunisia keeps its leadership and is by far ahead of Egypt (76th), Morocco (86th) and South Africa (52nd). In the Arab world, Tunisia follows closely three countries: United Arab Emirates (27th), Qatar (29th) and Bahrain (37th). By sections, Tunisia has achieved excellent results on the world scale.
Thus, it ranked third in terms of government success in ICTs promotion and 8th in government prioritisation of ICTs. According to the report, Tunisia is able to improve its ranking in the e-government section, given the determinant role of e-government in providing reliable and quality services made available to citizens and companies.

It is worth pointing out that the ICTs sector, a high added value sector, grew in 2008 at the high rate of 17.8%, bringing its GDP share up to 10% now, compared with 9% in 2007 and 5.9% in 2004.

Tunisia has bet on the ICTs sector to boost the socio- economic growth. It is within this framework that rests the project for the expansion of the El Ghezala Technological Park which will be carried out in several sections in the governorates of Ariana and Manouba.

This project provides for fitting out, at a first stage, several technological spaces covering an area of 100,000 square metres to host innovating companies and create over 5,000 jobs. The covered area of the whole project will reach approximately 500,000 square metres (including 200,000, in the area of Ennahli and 300,000 in Manouba).

To this area are added 100,000 more square metres for the extension of the technological parks of Sousse and Sfax.

Africa and the financial crisis, is it really going to be a war ?
The African Development Bank (ADB) took the initiative to gather the African ministers and bank governors to debate the world financial crisis which has been raging for some time, and about which the world experts say that the poorest among the African countries will be the most affected. At a date between the seism and the G20 Summit ...