India has introduced “Make in India” and Prime Minister Modi wants the world to be here and make their products in India. What strategy does Tunisia have to participate in this scheme?

Well, interestingly, we have similar schemes in Tunisia. It may appear that we are competing, but in reality we are complimentary. Tunisia is a major destination for FDI. We have more than 3600 foreign companies working in Tunisia and this is since the 1970s. We established one stop shops since early nineties. We enacted a new and attractive investment Act which offers many incentives for foreigners. We also have other similar initiatives like Smart Tunisia and Digital Tunisia, terms that are so familiar now in India in the form of Smart Cities and Digital India.

What is the scope of cooperation in the SME sector?

Most of the Tunisian companies are in the SMEs category and they play a very important role in job creation. I understand there are more than 488 lakh of MSMEs in India because micro enterprises are also included. In Tunisia we call them SMEs. They account for approximately 80 per cent of Tunisian companies, and policies of both countries, I understand, are quite similar in this sector. Cooperation through exchanging best practices and promoting the participation in fairs organized by both countries will, of course, make companies of both countries more competitive but at the same time complementary and more efficient in terms of quality of products, and job creation. I believe India has done a great job in promoting this sector which generates the lion’s share of jobs for Indian youth. So Tunisia can benefit from this Indian experience and that’s why as I told you earlier both countries have established a Joint Working Group in this field.