Speech
by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali at the opening of the Electoral
Campaign
(Le Kram, 10 october 2004)
In the Name of God, the Merciful,
the Compassionate,
Fellow citizens
in all parts of this secure country and abroad,
With God's grace, we open the presidential
and legislative electoral campaign. As we meet again,
we renew the commitment we have taken
for Tunisia , for its glory and invulnerability, for its prosperity
and progress. We all renew our commitment for the sake of our
homeland.
It is for our country's sake that
we have undertaken our action of salvation at the dawn of the
Change, restoring the people's sovereignty and re-establishing
the Republic and its institutions.
It is for our country's sake that
we have established the project of change, based upon the principles
of reform and modernization. It was thus that we have ushered
in an era of construction, accomplishment and gains, an era laying
the foundations for a better future for our coming generations.
Our people, men and women, from all
generations, intellectual and manual workers, farmers and fishermen,
and businessmen, have all embraced the process we have adopted
and the choices we have made at each stage.
We have counted on the maturity of
our people, and we have won the challenge.
With a firm determination, we have
persevered in taking initiatives, in working and in making accomplishments.
Tunisian men and women have proved our people's capacities and
great potentialities.
Since the Change, the achievements
we have made have changed the face of Tunisia in all areas of
endeavor. The GDP has increased fivefold, and our country's credibility
has been reinforced within its international environment.
Indebtedness has been reduced, and
the average inflation rate has been brought down to 3%, against
more than twice this percentage in the past.
The export sector has been stimulated,
and the per capita income has increased more than three times.
We have achieved the objective we
set in our Program for the Future in 1999, by exceeding the level
of 3,500 dinars as an average per capita income in 2004.
With all determination and perseverance,
we have worked to improve the citizens' quality of life in cities,
in rural areas and in all the regions of the country.
The structure of the Tunisian society
has changed. The demographic growth rate has decreased to 1.08%,
against more than twice this percentage in 1987. The health and
living conditions have improved, bringing up the rate of life
expectancy at birth to 73.2 years, against 67 years only at the
beginning of the era of Change.
The number of students has increased
six times, bringing up the rate of enrolment in higher education
to 26.4% for the 20-24 age category. Today, our elementary and
secondary schools include more than 1.1 million pupils, against
no more than 420,000 in the past.
All these achievements have been
made thanks to the reforms we have undertaken to promote our educational
system, to improve its performance, to upgrade its institutions,
and to eradicate such negative phenomena as students dropping
out of school and low rates of success.
With these reforms, we have worked
to anchor the foundations of our national identity in our young
generations, and to ensure their access to knowledge, sciences
and technologies of this age, in order to win the challenge of
modernity.
The rate of social transfers and
expenses amounts today to 53.5% of the State budget, against 44%
in 1986. This, in fact, constitutes a consecration of the stake
we have placed on people. We have also been keen on directing
our efforts toward the sectors of health, education, training,
research, employment and the various social programs.
Today, with the social security cover
rate amounting to 86% against only 54.6 in the past, and with
an accelerating pace of job creation and an increasing rate of
women's activity, all the foundations have been reinforced and
all the conditions have been provided for the achievement of the
hoped-for quantum leap for our country, so that our people can
pursue its successful process which has placed it, in a short
period, within the panoply of emerging countries.
The past period was, on the international
scene, fraught with difficulties and challenges, accompanied,
on the national scene, by inadequate climatic conditions, and
then by exorbitant oil prices on the world markets, and a shrinking
foreign investment as a result of these factors.
The beginning of the new century
has witnessed major changes and events, which have deeply affected
the world juncture at all levels, radically changed the world
order, and influenced its civilizational and religious dimensions.
Things have been further intensified
with the emergence of new forms of violence and terrorism, which
deeply threaten the bonds of cooperation and solidarity and the
relations of dialogue and entente among countries and peoples.
Despite such conditions and difficulties,
our country has managed, over the past five years, to preserve
its balances, to resist the world's economic fluctuations, and
to make a fresh start toward further growth and prosperity and
the achievement of optimum results. We have indeed managed, thanks
to the soundness of our choices, to achieve a 100% rate of implementation
of all the items included in the Electoral Program we presented
to voters in 1999.
We have achieved what we promised
our people, and pursued our progress on the path of well-being
and prosperity. Salary increases have never been discontinued;
and we have been committed to our approach premised upon social
harmony and our contract-based approach, the fact which has made
of our country a unique model despite the conditions and difficulties
we stated earlier.
Besides, our successes have been
achieved thanks to the awareness of our people—men and women,
as well as of our national organizations representing employers,
farmers, fishermen, and intellectual and manual workers, and also
thanks to their sense of responsibility and their determination
to serve the country's supreme interest.
Fellow citizens,
The presidential and legislative
elections, scheduled for October 24, constitute an excellent opportunity
for political parties to make known their electoral programs as
well as their orientations and choices. They also constitute an
opportunity to work and to win more supporters, within the context
of democracy and pluralism which we have been keen on establishing
and consolidating, by ensuring the plurality of candidacies to
the Presidency of the Republic and anchoring political pluralism
in the Chamber of Deputies.
These elections, for which we have
provided all guarantees of transparency and integrity and offered
the possibility to follow them for those from sisterly and friendly
countries wishing to attend their various stages, will provide
another opportunity for all to show a highly civilized behavior
and embrace the principles of democracy.
While thanking again all who have
endorsed our candidacy, including national organizations, the
components of civil society and political parties, for having
expressed a great confidence in our choices and a strong commitment
to our orientations, we are convinced that they will offer the
best support to ensure the success of these elections. The Constitutional
Democratic Party (RCD) ranks first among these parties. It is
the party that we have the honor of chairing; it is the party
that presented us as a candidate for these elections; it is the
party of activism, glory; the party of change and ambition; it
is the party that boasts many skilled cadres, men and women, serving
our beloved country from all positions.
We are convinced that the RCD, our
prestigious party, will again be up to our people's ambitions
and aspirations for the future.
Fellow citizens,
It is for the sake of our beloved
and invulnerable Tunisia that we strive and sacrifice. And it
is for tomorrow's Tunisia and its youth and future generations
that we have drawn up our Electoral Program 2004-2009; our Program
for tomorrow's Tunisia .
We want it to be a program that ushers
in a new stage. We also want it to be a program that lays the
ground for subsequent stages and opens up new prospects for Tunisia
and for the future of its young generations; a developed Tunisia
which we want to be endowed with a great cohesion and a strong
associative fabric, anchored in modernity, and mastering modern
technologies, scientific innovations, and new and innovative industries.
We are building the present and establishing
the foundations for the future. We are making accomplishments,
laying the ground for further achievements, and paving the way
for our future generations.
Our Program's orientations and choices
are drawn from the spirit of reform and modernization as well
as from Tunisia 's new Constitution. Our Program's principles
and constant tenets are drawn from the principles of the Republic
and the values of rule of law, freedom, security and justice.
Our Program's concepts and elements
constitute strong foundations in the process of building the knowledge-based
society, establishing the new economy, and promoting free initiative.
Our Program offers a stronger support to employment—our
constant priority, and a further stimulation to the creation of
enterprises and the conquering of foreign markets.
Our program serves our strategic
choices.
It is a program for all, aiming at
improving the quality of life and ensuring well-being. It also
aims at further reinforcing equality and promoting the rights
of women. It is a program for youth, for children, for all social
categories.
It is a program that reinforces the
gains of the middle class and offers support to categories with
special needs. It is also a program for the men and women of Tunisia
abroad. It is a program that highlights our noble values, the
values of work, solidarity, moderation and tolerance.
These presidential and legislative
elections come at a time when Tunisia is at a stage where it can
aspire to join the ranks of developed countries and modern economies.
Our gains, our achievements, and
all our growth indicators do reinforce our optimism and strengthen
our determination to achieve our lofty objective : joining the
ranks of developed countries, for the sake of our people, for
the glory of our country, and for the prosperity of its present
and future generations.
Today, we present our Program for
tomorrow's Tunisia . With this program, with its twenty-one topics,
we launch a new era of accomplishment and work; we open up new
prospects for Tunisia . With these topics, we establish twenty-one
landmarks in the process of building the next stage, so that it
constitutes a crucial stage in preparing tomorrow's Tunisia.
Fellow citizens,
Employment remains our top priority.
For that reason, we have included, within our Program, mechanisms
to reinforce employment and measures to stimulate it. We have
also been keen on encouraging private initiative and immaterial
work, identifying new occupations and preserving traditional skills.
While we have managed, during the
past five years, to achieve a tangible progress in satisfying
the additional job demands, with the creation of 350,000 jobs,
i.e., with an average of 70,000 new jobs every year, the fact
which has decreased the unemployment rate by two points to reach,
for the first time in our country, 13.9%, we have placed again
employment in the forefront of our Program, in order to achieve
a stronger correlation between the evolution of the structure
of the job market and the increase in the number of university
graduates on the one hand, and the development of the national
economy and its various sectors on the other hand.
In our Program, we have included
an increase in the limit of the value of credits granted by the
Tunisian solidarity Bank, and that of the investment credits granted
to university graduates. We have also provided for simplified
procedures for the creation of business enterprises, and generalized
mechanisms of guidance in all governorates.
We have consolidated our Program
through the adoption of practical programs aimed at further promoting
and upgrading our educational system in all its cycles, so that
its indicators can reach the levels of the most developed educational
systems in the world, as regards the ratio of teaching staff per
student, the learning conditions and quality, the efficiency of
scientific research, and the educational institutions' complementarity
with their socio-economic environment and attachment to our national
identity and culture.
We will universally introduce a pre-school
grade by the end of 2009. We will also reach the average of one
computer for each classroom in each cycle of education by 2009.
We will upgrade our universities and create new institutions in
all regions, in order to meet our needs in the higher education
sector, where the number of students will exceed 500,000 in 2009.
We will also work to meet the challenge
of quality in vocational training and to develop its system of
financing, in order to make sure it meets the needs of the economy
and strengthens links between vocational training and the enterprise
on the one hand, and between vocational training and the system
of education on the other hand.
Based on our belief in the role of
scientific research in establishing the knowledge society, in
reinforcing the development process, and in opening up the prospects
of innovation and creativity for skilled people, we are determined
to increase the share of the GDP allocated to scientific and technological
research to 1.25% by the end of 2009, while giving a greater role
to the private sector in this regard, after we have achieved the
objective set in our Program for the Future and brought this share
to 1%.
Fellow citizens,
The greatest challenge of the coming
stage consists in accelerating the pace of business enterprise
creation in all sectors, especially in the fields of services
and promising and innovative industries. We have, therefore, made
of it a basic theme in our Program, in order to further stimulate
employment, strengthen our competitive capacity, achieve integration
within the world economy, and ensure the success of the process
of partnership with all partners with whom we entertain economic
relations.
Our objective is to create 70,000
new business enterprises or projects during the coming five years.
We will promote free initiative, by reducing to only 1,000 dinars
the capital legally required for the creation of limited liability
companies. We will also establish a bank specialized in financing
small and medium-sized companies to help these companies obtain
credits.
In addition to working for the creation
of a new generation of innovative business enterprises, we have
decided various incentives and encouragements for export-oriented
enterprises, which will be allowed to keep all the foreign currency
they obtain from exports. We will also increase the business travel
allowance and the travel allowance for promoters of new projects.
In addition to focusing on the culture
of quality and increasing the number of our business enterprises
achieving conformity with international standards, we have set
the raising of the national managerial staff ratio to 17% as an
objective for the year 2009.
To offer all the country's regions
equal chances to benefit from this national effort, we will establish
a business center in each Governorate. Such centers will consolidate
all structures of support and guidance, and provide information
for promoters and business enterprises, from the phases preceding
the establishment of the project to the phase of financing and
effective implementation of the project.
As the knowledge-based economy constitutes
a basic component of the new economy whose foundations we are
endeavoring to establish, we will work to achieve our country's
integration within the global grid of intelligence-based economy,
and to attract foreign investments for Tunisia , relying on our
wealth of human resources and their competence in all fields.
We will reach a telephone coverage
of 80% in 2009. Our Program also provides for the gradual removal
of the fees for subscription to telephone networks, the establishment
of an electronic network with a higher international capacity,
and the generalization of broadband connections for all subscribers—individuals
and enterprises.
We have also set the achievement
of the figure of one million computers as an objective for 2009.
While endeavoring to achieve a quicker
growth rate and a greater integration within the global economy,
we will step up efforts, as part of the constant tenets of development
work, particularly the correlation between the economic and social
dimensions, in order to limit the inflation rate to 3% and the
current-account deficit to 2.5% of the GDP, and to further bring
down the foreign indebtedness rate, in order to guarantee the
future of our coming generations.
We will also alleviate tax obligations
and burdens on enterprises, decrease the duties imposed on highly-taxable
goods, and achieve convergence between the system set up for fully
export-oriented enterprises and that adopted for enterprises geared
toward the domestic market.
We want Tunisia to become an international
center for trade and commerce, in order to reinforce its capacity
to achieve integration within its world environment and strengthen
its position on foreign markets.
Among the basic themes of our Electoral
Program are the modernization of the banking and financial systems,
and the orientation of our monetary reforms toward the full convertibility
of the Dinar.
We are firmly determined to promote
our banking services to the level of international standards.
We will work to establish electronic banking and to reinforce
incentives and mechanisms in order to increase the number of enterprises
listed in the Stock Exchange.
As part of the orientation toward
the full convertibility of the Dinar, we will accord attention
to the members of liberal professions as well as to exporters
of various services.
To materialize the constant care
we offer to low-income social categories as part of our solidarity-based
choice, we will increase the upper limit deductible from the income
tax base for recipients of the minimum guaranteed wage.
Fellow citizens,
One of the foundations of modernity
and the building of the new economy consists in establishing a
modern infrastructure in all fields. Since the Change, we have
accorded all due attention to this sector, which has made it possible
to achieve a major quantum leap for the national economy and the
social action.
We are firmly determined to open
up new prospects for Tunisia in this field, so as to best prepare
it for the coming decades, for the requirements of progress, and
for the expected changes in its social, demographic and urban
structure, and in order to preserve the soundness of its environment
and reinforce the conditions of quality of life for our coming
generations.
It is our duty vis-à-vis these
generations to provide the necessary ground for a modern and solidly
structured infrastructure, by promoting urban development, reinforcing
the networks of roads and highways, and ensuring smooth transportation
between and inside regions and cities.
One of the strategic files submitted
for study during the coming stage consists in establishing a clear
plan for the modernization of the network of highways and expressways,
in order to keep up with the requirements of the new economy in
the medium and long terms.
Since the Change, we have worked
to preserve our food security and to improve the conditions of
farmers. We have recorded significant achievements and gains in
this field. Today, our determination is strong to further modernize
this sector, to improve its productivity, and to strengthen its
competitiveness. This will further improve the farmers' income
and enhance the role of agriculture in the process of development.
Our priorities, in this regard, consist in winning major challenges,
the first of which being water desalination and acquisition of
the necessary technology in this field.
The second challenge consists in
mastering the techniques of producing and diversifying select
seeds and plants, and in protecting the national agricultural
and animal stock.
The third consists in meeting the
challenge of quality and introducing modern management into this
sector.
The fourth consists in conquering
new sectors such as biological agriculture, promoting the sector
of fisheries and fish-breeding, protecting the soil against erosion,
pursuing the fight against desertification, and making use of
the potential resources existing in the desert.
Through the new structure of the
agricultural production, we will work to make sure irrigated zones
become the source of 50% of this production. We will also endeavor
to build a new generation of large dams, to establish a network
of connection between dams, to generalize the use of water conservation
techniques, and to increase biological production by 200% by the
year 2009. We will also strive to achieve a higher level of competitiveness
for our agricultural products.
Fellow citizens,
Since the Change, we have focused
attention on reforming public service, developing its legislation,
and simplifying its procedures and regulations. We have developed
the services it provides and endeavored to bring it closer to
citizens, so that it can serve them and serve the development
work.
We are determined to pursue this
effort, so that the public service can keep up with the requirements
of the new economy and achieve integration within the knowledge
society and the world of information and communication networks.
We are in the age of express services
and the efficient interaction with their beneficiaries. To eliminate
long delays in certain administrative services, we will set specific
deadlines for the public service to respond to citizens' requests,
and generalize the services of the Public Service Ombudsman in
all Governorates by the year 2009. We will also enlarge the scope
of remote services provided to citizens and institutions. Our
Program also includes the replacement of 90% of licenses by lists
of requirements by the end of 2009.
Improving the citizens' living standards,
preserving the high percentage of middle-class categories in our
society, and reinforcing the foundations of social promotion for
all segments of society are among our basic choices.
This is indeed what we will continue
reinforcing, so that life quality indicators in Tunisia reach
the level of developed societies. In this regard, we will create
new forms of financing so that average-income citizens can afford
to purchase a home.
To consolidate these mechanisms,
we have included within our Program the enlargement of the range
of beneficiaries from the financing of social housing to those
whose monthly wage does not exceed a maximum of one thousand dinars.
We will also work to achieve an effective
social security cover of 95% in 2009, and also to achieve a better
healthcare coverage and a higher quality of health services.
To further improve the citizens'
purchasing power and enable the national economy, with its various
indicators, to join countries holding a more advanced rank in
the world, we have set a new objective for the coming stage :
achieving a per capita income of 5,000 in 2009.
At the same time, we will work to
ensure a greater protection for consumers and to harmonize the
national health safety standards with the European standards,
in order to reinforce the competitiveness of the national economy.
In the coming stage, we will work
to further promote our cities, to make them into cities for the
new century; cities for a developed society; cities for work,
for intelligence-based industries, for the knowledge society;
cities for well-being and cultural and sports activities; beautiful
and clean cities. We will also endeavor, through the programs
for the care of villages and rural areas, to make quality of life
comprehensive and fully-encompassing to all, benefiting all inhabitants
and serving sustainable development.
We work for the quality of life and
for a sound environment. We are keen on ensuring an optimum use
of the land, and on disseminating an urban and environmental culture
that reinforces the foundations of decent life, the beauty of
cities and the soundness of the environment, relying, in this
regard, on the stimulation of partnerships with the components
of civil society.
Fellow citizens,
In our view, solidarity constitutes
a civilizational and an ethical value as well as a social bond.
We have worked to stimulate the sense
of solidarity in all Tunisian men and women, through our successive
initiatives, especially the establishment of the National Solidarity
Fund (26-26) which has benefited “shadow areas”. We
have accelerated the pace of creation of small projects and sources
of income, through the establishment of the Tunisian Solidarity
Bank and the system of micro-credits. We have also consolidated
the country's capacity for employment through the establishment
of the National Employment Fund (21-21).
Today, these mechanisms constitute,
along with the other existing structures, an integrated and multi-faceted
national solidarity network. With the new traditions, we have
anchored the culture of solidarity which provides today the best
support to the State's efforts.
We will pursue our course of action
by enhancing partnerships with civil society in this field, and
consolidating the role of solidarity in promoting stability and
strengthening the foundations of comprehensive and sustainable
development.
To consolidate the system of assistance,
the mechanisms and the various programs for care to laid-offs,
and to facilitate their re-integration within economic life, we
have included within our Program the creation of a new type of
contracts, the contract for professional re-integration, in order
to provide care to workers laid off for economic reasons.
We will work to promote social categories
with special needs from the phase of assistance to the phase of
integration, by adopting a new orientation law to promote and
protect persons with disability and help them achieve socio-economic
integration.
Fellow citizens,
Tunisian women today are full-fledged
partners in society, and are equal to men. They assume responsibilities
in public life, and contribute to the development work and to
all fields of creation, innovation, and cultural production, as
well as to the dissemination of our civilizational values.
Women's political presence has reached
significant ratios : 11.5% in the Chamber of Deputies; 20.6% in
municipal councils, and 16% in the Economic and Social Council.
They are also present in all professional and social fields, which
clearly reflects the degree of advancement Tunisian women have
attained : nearly 50% of the teachers in primary and secondary
schools, 42% of the medical profession, and 40% in higher education
institutions. They also represent 32% of engineers, 31% of lawyers
and 27% of judges.
We will work to further reinforce
women's presence in all economic sectors and areas of public life,
as well as in high-level positions and in decision-making and
responsibility positions.
To make it easier for women to reconcile
their family life with their professional commitments, we have
included, in our Electoral Program, a special system for mothers
allowing them, if they wish, to work half-time for two-thirds
of the salary, while retaining their rights in terms of retirement
and social security cover. This in addition to improving the conditions
surrounding women's activities and their family life in all its
aspects.
We have placed youth in a high position
because we believe that building the future rests on youth. We
have been keen on listening to their concerns, and we have regularly
organized national consultations on youth.
We have made youth a basic theme
in all our policies. We have enhanced their participation in public
life and their presence in the institutions of the Republic, in
the various structures, and in the civil society fabric.
This being our choice, we will continue
to improve the conditions of youth in all fields, focusing our
action on establishing a renewed infrastructure for youth in all
Governorates.
We have included in our Program an
increase in the budget allocated to culture, youth and leisure,
so that it reaches 1.5% of the state budget in 2009, while devoting
50% of the increase to finance infrastructure projects for youth
activities.
To make sure young people who graduate
from the various cycles of higher education or from the sector-based
vocational training centers do not remain without health coverage
after graduation and during the search for a job or the preparation
for the creation of a project, we will provide health coverage
for graduates for one year after graduation.
Tunisians abroad are a civilizational
bond and a source of support for development. We have accorded
them all due attention. We follow their concerns and conditions,
and we work to protect their rights in their countries of residence
and to consolidate such rights in law and in practice. We are
constantly developing outreach channels with them, as well as
special programs for the teaching of the national culture and
the Arabic language. We are also giving encouragement to their
associative activities and conveying to them our appreciation
for their achievements, creative works and cultural production.
Tunisia expects a lot from its sons
and daughters abroad, so that they constitute the best support
for its development and the best reflection of its image. We consider
them a civilizational bridge between their homeland and each of
their nations of residence. This is indeed what we have constantly
worked to emphasize in each stage as a constant tenet of the Change
and as one of the fundamental choices we have made.
Besides, we announce our determination
to ensure the representation of our communities abroad in the
Council of Advisors, in order to enhance their participation in
public life, side by side with the other components and categories
of our people.
During the coming stage that will
witness the completion of the process of partnership with Europe,
we will work to make sure Tunisians abroad constitute an integral
part of our approach to association with the European Union, so
that the development of this approach introduces positive changes
in their conditions.
Fellow citizens,
Our constant principle is that culture
is a source of support for the Change. Our firm conviction is
that no progress can be achieved without a culture deeply anchored
in our civilizational history, reinforcing the identity and the
foundations of the Tunisian personality, capable of contributing
to universal civilization, and of being actively present within
an environment facing serious dangers of cultural invasion, an
environment where culture has become a manifestation of peoples'
resiliency.
As we constantly endeavor with perseverance
to stimulate creativity and innovation, it is one of our fundamental
tenets and choices to reinforce the foundations of our national
culture, in the forefront of which our sublime Islamic religion
and its supreme values, the values of moderation, tolerance, solidarity,
openness and interpretative thinking (Ijtihad).
We have made of the dialogue among
civilizations and religions a basic theme of Tunisian cultural
life and a constant orientation in our cultural relations with
other peoples and in our action on the international scene. Through
the reforms and initiatives we have adopted since the Change,
we have worked to protect our religion against all forms of distortion
and to disseminate its sublime teachings and the spirit of moderation
and Ijtihad characterizing it.
We have rehabilitated mosques and
provided care to those in charge of their affairs. In this regard,
we have been keen on respecting our traditions and noble values,
rejecting all forms of extremism and fanaticism, including types
of clothes coming from abroad by imitation and as a sign of political
extremism.
During the past period, we have worked
to materialize our decision to increase the budget allocated to
culture to 1% of the State budget. We have developed the existing
legislations to encourage production and investment in cultural
industries and to protect the rights of authorship and publication.
We have intensified our care to intellectuals and artists and
promoted better working conditions and social protection for them.
In the coming stage, we will work
to further promote our national culture to a higher status. We
will accord a greater attention to digital culture as one aspect
of the building of the knowledge society, by supporting the new
modes of cultural production.
We have also included within our
Program a further increase in the budget allocated to culture,
so that it gradually reaches 1.5% of the State budget in 2009,
while devoting 50% of the increase to financing cultural projects
in the regions.
We will also work to reinforce the
safeguarding of the heritage and historical monuments, and to
open up wider prospects for cultural industries, by establishing
a special training program in the field of business enterprise
creation for graduates of Arts Institutes, and by encouraging
foreign investment and partnership in the fields of cultural production
and cultural tourism.
Since the Change, we have been keen
on consecrating the principles of mutual respect and understanding,
moderation, cooperation and solidarity in our foreign relations
at the bilateral and multilateral levels, and through Tunisia's
contributions to all international, regional and UN agencies and
organizations, being attached to our national sovereignty, our
civilizational roots, and the foundations of the Tunisian national
identity, anchored in its Maghreb, Arab, Islamic, African and
Mediterranean environments.
We are firmly determined to rally
efforts in order to resolve the major issues of concern to the
Arab World, in particular the Middle-East question.
We are also keen on supporting all
efforts that can serve joint Arab action, stimulate the process
of reform and modernization, and promote women's conditions in
our Arab world.
We will also endeavor to further
reinforce the process of partnership with the European Union,
in order to achieve the hoped-for quantum leap in terms of integration
in our foreign environment, which will serve Tunisia 's interests
and open up wider prospects for its future generations.
We are also strongly determined to
reinforce cooperation with the sisterly African countries at the
bilateral level, as part of tripartite cooperation, and through
the mechanisms and programs of the African Union, and also to
promote and widen the prospects of cooperation with the countries
of America and Asia .
We will diligently pursue our efforts
to serve peace and stability in our region and in the world, to
support the UN efforts in all fields, to actively contribute to
serving peace and fruitful cooperation with all international
financial and economic organizations and agencies, and to foster
the role of NGOs in serving humanity in all fields.
Fellow citizens,
We have adopted reform as a firm
choice since the dawn of the Change. We have premised our action
upon our firm conviction in the principles of democracy, pluralism,
freedom, human rights, solidarity, tolerance, moderation and the
golden mean. This conviction is deeply rooted in the foundations
of the Tunisian national identity and in our country's historical
experience.
Our reformist thinking is quintessentially
Tunisian and its manifestations are multi-faceted. Nonetheless,
we have benefited from the experiences of other countries and
drawn lessons from the setbacks of some of them. We have been
committed to our choice in each stage and materialized it in all
the reforms we have undertaken, the latest of which being the
constitutional reform which we submitted to a referendum and which
was unanimously approved by the people as a framework for the
future republican institution-building and democratic process,
and as a reference for the values we all embrace.
Since the Change, we have made successive
initiatives, consisting particularly in amending the Constitution,
the Electoral Code and the various legislations organizing political
life; our aim being to consecrate our democratic choice in daily
life and reinforce pluralism in our constitutional institutions.
We have encouraged political parties, provided support to them
and to their press, offered them the possibility to obtain seats
in the Chamber of Deputies. Had it not been for our initiatives,
this would never have been possible.
Today, we are firmly moving ahead;
and nothing will hinder our progress. The coming stage will witness
new strides which we will make to strengthen our democratic gains
and enrich our achievements, by reinforcing the contribution of
political parties to promoting the process of democracy and pluralism.
We are determined to give a new impetus
to local democracy, and to promote the means for citizens' participation
in the affairs of their regions. We will also work to offer all
national organizations the possibility to participate in the sessions
of regional councils, as part of the provisions offered, in this
regard, by the law to Governors.
Through this Program, we will also
work to reinforce the prerogatives of regions in setting development
priorities and conceiving regional programs, especially as regards
employment, the promotion of free initiative, and the acceleration
of the pace of enterprise creation in the regions.
We have also included in our Program
the establishment of a first generation of sectoral program contracts
between the State and regional councils, in addition to allocating
additional budget resources to the regions to enable them to accomplish
their new tasks. We have also included a special program to encourage
skilled cadres to move from headquarters offices to regional locations
instead.
We will work to enhance pluralism
in the media landscape, by increasing support to newspapers published
by political parties, enlarging the fora of dialogue, encouraging
private initiative in the information sector, and improving the
conditions of journalistic work and the situation of journalists
in light of the evolution witnessed by this sector.
We will also work to achieve a new
quantum leap for civil society, by giving a new impetus to associative
life and greater incentives to the associative fabric.
Fellow citizens,
We are working and persevering for
a modernist Tunisia . The forthcoming presidential election, scheduled
for October 24, 2004 , will, therefore, constitute an opportunity
to renew our determination to pursue the process of accomplishments
and gains at all the political, economic, social and cultural
levels.
In light of the values and principles
of the Republic, we are reinforcing the practice of democracy
and further anchoring pluralism in all aspects of political activity.
We are promoting human rights and expanding public and individual
freedoms, in order to win the stakes of the new century, meet
the challenge of globalization, and achieve further successes
and results in addition to those accomplished by our country at
all levels.
We renew our commitment to continue
our endeavor as an emerging country that is moving ahead.
We listen to our people and meet
its aspirations. Our Program for tomorrow's Tunisia responds to
our people's concerns and meets the needs of all its categories.
With its twenty-one topics, we establish a contract for work and
accomplishment, and we lay the ground for the future. We renew
our commitment with Tunisia , with its glory and invulnerability,
with the better future for the coming generations.
With all the sons and daughters of
Tunisia ,
All for the sake of Tunisia .
Long live Tunisia , glorious and
invulnerable forever !
Thank you for your attention.
