Tunis - Prime Minister Sarra Zaafrani Zenzri chaired a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday at the Kasbah Government Palace to discuss the draft Development Plan 2026–2030.

She highlighted that the plan was carefully monitored throughout its preparation and, for the first time in Tunisia, adopts a bottom-up approach, starting at the local level, moving to regional and district levels, and culminating at the national level.

The plan was drafted by combining reports from local, regional and district councils within the framework of state unity, ensuring coherence between social and economic policies and development projects proposed by elected councils.

This aims to establish a new development model that guarantees social justice and balanced development, in line with President Kais Saied’s vision, addressing the legitimate aspirations of Tunisians.

The plan emphasises the social dimension as a strategic priority and seeks to achieve inclusive and fair economic and social integration across regions, laying the foundation for a strong, resilient economy capable of withstanding global transformations, including geopolitical tensions, shifts toward a multipolar world, slowing global growth, and closer production chains.

The Prime Minister also noted global trends such as accelerated digitalisation, artificial intelligence, widening technological gaps, energy transition, climate and environmental challenges and growing reliance on renewable energy.

The plan aims to direct investment toward clean technologies, the green and circular economy, and environmental protection.

The overarching objective of the plan is social justice and balanced development, at the heart of Tunisia’s economic policy.

On the economic front, the Prime Minister emphasised that the goal is to elevate the growth rate to higher levels by supporting high value-added sectors, promoting innovation and research and development, and stimulating productive investment.

This aims to enhance the national economy's resilience to shocks and improve competitiveness, which will help create decent job opportunities and reduce unemployment rates, especially among youth and holders of higher education degrees.

On the social level, the objective is to strengthen social justice by expanding the base of beneficiaries of growth outcomes, aiming to reduce poverty and vulnerability rates, enhance social protection systems and ensure equal opportunities in access to education, healthcare, and employment.

This strengthens social cohesion and reinforces citizens’ trust in state policies.

At the territorial level, the plan aims to direct investments, especially public ones, toward less developed regions, with priority given to developing infrastructure and improving the quality of basic services.

This aims to promote local development, reduce territorial disparities, and enhance the attractiveness of the regions, thereby consolidating a path of balanced territorial development and contributing to the creation of new growth hubs outside traditional centers.

The Prime Minister underscored the importance of implementing the necessary reforms in legal frameworks to ensure harmony between the economic, social, and regional dimensions by adopting an approach based on establishing a comprehensive and fair development model.

This model should elevate the aspirations of citizens and respond to their expectations.

She also affirmed that the draft development plan for the period 2026–2030 represents a pivotal national milestone, breaking away from previous policies that led to social, economic, environmental, and institutional imbalances.

It outlines the contours of the next phase based on the state’s national choices, ensuring balanced and fair distribution of wealth among all Tunisians in accordance with the directives of the President of the Republic.

In this context, she highlighted that improving the income and living conditions of citizens is a strategic goal for the state.

This enhances social justice, opens broader developmental horizons to support balanced territorial development, and drives the dynamism of the economic cycle.

During the meeting, Minister of Economy and Planning, Samir Abdelhafidh, presented a detailed overview of the macroeconomic framework and the outcome of synthesising reports prepared by local, regional, and district councils.

He also addressed the requirements for achieving growth objectives and new development prospects, along with the strategic assumptions and performance targets for key sectors during the period 2026–2030 in agriculture, manufacturing industries, phosphates, energy, transportation, and export enhancement efforts.

Additionally, he outlined the priorities, directions and strategic development goals derived from the expectations of local, regional, and district councils, as well as the key proposed reforms and measures and the methodology for handling the portfolio of proposed projects eligible for inclusion in the development plan for 2026–2030.

In conclusion, the Prime Minister stated that in the next phase, the draft development plan for 2026–2030 will be presented to the Cabinet, after taking into consideration all the observations raised by government members.

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