The "2011 Doing Business" annual report, released on Thursday, ranks Tunisia 55th out of a total of 183 countries.

The report is jointly released by the World Bank (WB) and its subsidiary, the International Financial Company (IFC), on the business environment and entitled "Acting for Entrepreneurs".

According to this report, the Tunisian economy is the one that has mostly eased tax payment thanks to the adoption of electronic payment systems.

It is also one of the countries whose data exchange system is the most modern for imports and exports.

This rating is made in accordance with the progress made by the countries in terms of implementation of regulatory reforms aimed to ease the creation and operating of enterprises, enhance transparency and property rights and improve efficiency of procedures for settling commercial disputes and bankruptcy.

With this good score, Tunisia has made a leap of three points compared to last year’s ranking and has done better than such countries like Turkey (65th), Poland (70th), Italy (80th), Egypt (94th) and Greece (109th).

The report also views Tunisia one of countries of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region which carried out deep reforms to ease trans-border trade, improved the quality of customs services and modernized infrastructure.

Development of these regulations is gauged, by the report, in accordance with facilitations given by government for business creation, granting construction licenses, transfer of property, loan granting, protection of investors, tax payments, trans-border trade, implementation of contracts and closing of businesses.

By sub-heading, out of a total of 183 countries, Tunisia is also well ranked by the same report in matters of business creation (48th), transfer of property (64th), protection of investors (74th), trans-border trade (30th), implementation of contracts (78th) and bankruptcies (37th).

Regarding the use of new technologies, considered by the report as “the foundation of the best regulatory practices in the world,” Tunisia has distinguished itself and made of e- government a pillar of comprehensive and sustainable development.

As to the rest of the countries, the report points to the speeding up of the pace of reforms in developing countries and underlines that, out of a total of 216 business regulation reforms started a year earlier, 66% have been materialized compared with only 34%, six years ago.

It should be reminded that nearly 85% of countries in the world adopted in the past years a total of 1,511 reforms to improve the business environment and ease activities of local developers.



Organized by the Tunisian Internet and Multimedia Association (ATIM), in cooperation with the French Communication and Information Association for Sustainable Development (ACIDD), Hammamet will host on November 10, 2010 an international workshop on the theme “Green and connected cities”.

The objective of this event, held in parallel events of the fifth edition of the forum “ICT 4 All -Tunis +5 Forum” (November 10-12 2010), aims at raising awareness of the concept of “Digital City” and the means able to integrate the Tunisian network of green digital cities.

Participants will discuss the progress of the Tunisian network of eight digital cities (municipalities of Sidi Bou Said / Bou Arada / Chenini / Kef / Denden / El Bradaa / Hammem Sousse and Kairouan).

The digital city concept aims at providing electronic services for all sectors of activity, including the economy, culture, society and leisure.

During the event, participants will review experiences around the Mediterranean in the sector of intelligent buildings or smart cities.

They will also examine the opportunities for improving the economic and social situation in the intelligent city, besides the role of youth and the creation of new jobs in the cities of today and tomorrow, while ensuring substantial energy savings.