TUNIS - A new employers' organisation, the "Confederation of Citizen Enterprises of Tunisia" (CONECT), has come into being driven by the ambition of "serving as a reference entrepreneurial partner of fair and responsible economic and social development."
CONECT, which seeks to bring together small, medium and large public, private and foreign enterprises based in Tunisia and subject to the actual tax system, seeks to enhance the image of these companies and offer them better national and international opportunities.
This new employers' organisation, which does not have members yet, aims to "meet the expectations of heads of businesses at the economic, social and tax levels."
It will also seek to "highlight the advantages and specifics of sectors and regions and introduce a new dynamic in boosting regional and international partnership in order to boost investment and ensure balanced sectoral and regional development."
Former executive member of the Tunisian Union of Industry, Trade and Handicrafts (UTICA) and former chairman of the National Chemical Federation, Mr. Tarek Cherif is the founding president of CONECT.
This organisation seeks to anchor values of citizenship among Tunisian enterprises by encouraging them to pay taxes, adopt good governance, meet environmental standards and endeavour to improve the workers' conditions," said Mr. Cherif at a news conference held on Wednesday.
He made it clear that "CONECT" is not dissident or opposed to UTICA: "it is rather ready to work with any economic structure and association."
Regarding the organisation's short-term action plan, Mrs. Douja Gharbi, vice-president of CONECT, announced the organisation of a "Business Diaspora Forum," to be held next September 28-29 in Tunis to develop partnership between the best Mediterranean startups, investors and several support networks in the Maghreb.
The agenda of this event also includes the organisation of a business visit, from October 3 to 5, to Tunisia of thirty businessmen operating essentially in the sectors of agri-business, textile and building.
CONECT plans to hold its first national congress in the first quarter of 2012, which will bring together sectoral and regional sections of the new employers' organisation.
© Tunis-Afrique Presse 2011
