Tunisia: Understanding Conflict 2012 - Johns Hopkins School of ...

As Tunisia led the movement, its democratic success will take on symbolic value for
other countries in the region. Additionally, China is one of Tunisia’s most active new
trading partners. Between 2000 and 2009, trade increased tenfold with China. Thus
China also has an interest in the country’s stability and could be called upon accordingly
to provide foreign assistance. Given China’s preference for funding infrastructure
projects, the Tunisian government could negotiate to have China provide the resources to
complete several major tourist infrastructure projects that were put on hold due to the
global financial crisis.
Additionally, the government has failed to develop and implement a detailed,
comprehensive strategy for reducing unemployment. This can be attributed to the lack of
experience of the current government officials, the majority of which did not serve under
the Ben Ali regime. While the Ennahdha party has outlined important goals for reducing
unemployment in its 365 point program, it has yet to develop a comprehensive strategy
for achieving these goals. Instead, the government has been implementing ad hoc
measures that have failed to produce concrete results. In order to be more effective, the
government should tie its efforts to reduce unemployment to a more developed strategy.
Long-Term Issues
As seen in Figure 1 above, the youth unemployment rate will naturally fall to a
manageable rate by the end of the decade if the GDP growth rate is sustained at 4 to 5%.
Therefore, in the long term, encouraging economic growth and addressing several
structural unemployment issues should be a sufficient strategy for addressing
unemployment. In order to encourage economic growth, the government faces the longterm
challenges of strengthening the private sector and encouraging foreign direct
investment. Additionally, the government must develop certain sectors, including
telecommunications and tourism, which are job-intensive and employ high-skill laborers.
A last long-term issue is the education system, which is currently failing to adequately
prepare university graduates to enter the workforce. Addressing these issues, which will
be discussed further below, will generally boost economic growth and address structural
unemployment issues.
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