Chapter 1

Infrastructure services: Provision and has been low and costs very high, such as cargo handling
maintenance and maritime transport. In maritime transport, the public
sector Compagrie Tunisienne de Navigation (CTN) still
Infrastructure capacity actually grew faster than GDP holds monopoly powers in Tunisia over the most important
between 1990 and 1993 in telecommunications, transport regular lines (Tunis-Marseille), resulting in transport costs
vehicles, and electricity distribution (table 2.3).' Particularly between Tunis and Marseille that are higher than between
striking is the growth in road cargo vehicles after the gov- Singapore and Marseille. Likewise, the state-owned cargoerinent
permitted private companies to enter the sector in handling firm STAM holds a monopoly in the Tunis ports
1989/90. Utilization of all parts of the transport network (Tunis, la Goulette, and Rades). The government is well
increased faster than GDP with the exception of sea pas- aware of these shortcomings and is in the process of
sengers and rail transport (table 2.3). A recent survey ana- exploring all options, including privatization, to improve
lyzing different factors that foreign businessmen consider in the situation.
deciding where to invest ranked Tunisia's infrastructure Air transport (noncharter) is a monopoly of the public
base (Tunis and Sousse-Monastir areas) as adequate or company Tunis Air. The current option under consideration
good. The main area with less favorable ratings was is to sell 10 percent of its equity on the stock market, which
advanced telecommunication services. 2 Although Tunisia's falls short of privatizing the company. Deregulation of pubinfrastructure
services are generally good, the government lic bus passenger transport has been limited to two bus
can further improve efficiency and increase competition licenses that have been granted on a restrictive basis for
through: transport within Tunis and a few authorizations granted to
* The deregulation of several state-run monopolies, taxi operators. A major opening of bus activity to the private
enabling private sector entry and the more decentralized sector is not envisaged, because the government uses revprovision
of some services; enue from its profitable lines to compensate for losses on its
* Improvements in pricing and regulation policies, which more unprofitable lines. One option to explore is the possialso
have a positive effect on the environment; and bility of deregulating the less profitable lines first.
* Measures to improve expenditure allocations, particu- Telecommunications is a monopoly of the state, and the
larly for operation and maintenance (O&M). government places a high priority on the provision of reliable
phone services. Although new public investment
Deregulation and increased efficiency increased from TD 43.4 million to TD 123.2 million
between 1987 and 1994, the Government is unable to keep
The deregulation of the merchandise transport sector began up with the backlog of connection requests (125,000 in
in 1985 with a law opening regional merchandise transport 1993) and the continued strong growth in new demand for
to the private sector. The law, however, was not enacted until phone connections (table 2.4).
four years later. Since 1989 progress has been swift, with the Recent international studies point to the dramatic expanshare
of private regional carriers in total merchandise trans- sion in the number and sophistication of new communicaport
growing from 0 percent to 65 percent by 1993, with over tions tools to use and access information. Technological
100 private carriers operating at the regional level. Transport change has stimulated the sustained growth of demand by
fees have been lowered on average by one-third compared
to the maximum fees charged by the public regional enter-
reducing costs and prices while increasing the range and
prises before deregulation, and some tariffs have been cut by TABLE 2.4
as much as half. The experience has been positive, but the Demand for telephone connections
intense competition has put the public transport enterprises (rh req )
under increasing financial and managerial difficulties. The 1991 1992 1993
Government is beginning to privatize these companies (four New demands 76.7 85.8 92.5
out of sixteen have been sold).
The Government has been more hesitant to liberalize
other transport activities, even in cases where productivity
New connecions
WaitingE
n
a. Stock and unsatisfled new demand.
Source: SIDES 1995.
45.5 54.7
~~141.1 143.4
63.4
125.0
18 TuNIsi'S GLoBAL INTEGRATAON AND SUSTAiNABLE DEVELOPMENTf STRATEGIC CHOICES FOR THE 2 1sT CENTURY