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Speech by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on the 50th anniversary of Independence |
Radès, March 20, 2006
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Fellow citizens,
On this memorable day, our country celebrates the 50th anniversary of its independence, a perennial and glorious national event we commemorate with much pride; a great historic day on which Tunisia freed itself from the yoke of colonization and recovered its sovereignty. It was indeed a great crowning for the struggle conducted by our valorous people for the sake of freedom, glory and dignity.
Our celebration of the 50th anniversary of independence constitutes a renewed occasion to confirm our constant faithfulness to the blood of martyrs and the sacrifices of pro-independence activists and freedom-fighters; a celebration in which we invoke our people's brilliant high deeds and glories, while taking pride in our history of struggle and our glorious past from which the succeeding generations draw the meanings of attachment and loyalty to Tunisia and nothing but Tunisia.
Fellow citizens,
Independence was the fruit of a long popular struggle that started as soon as the colonial forces set foot on the soil of Tunisia in the mountains of Kroumirie. Free patriots stood, from the first day of colonization, against colonial armies in the mountain of Makna, with all the arms and the courage they had. Their resistance was a continuous epic pursued throughout all the regions of the country. It was an uninterrupted struggle over a period of 75 years during which the Tunisian people made the highest of sacrifices and showed the greatest heroism.
This epic was fed by a high patriotic sense whose roots emanated from the Tunisian reform movement involving all categories of the people and all national forces, and in which elites mixed with popular masses, and the Neo-Destour Party assumed an avant-garde and leading role at all stages, along with national organizations and valiant patriots from all tendencies.
While recalling today, with deep reverence, the sacrifices made by succeeding generations of valorous martyrs, pro-independence activists and freedom-fighters, we wish to express our great consideration to the leaders of the national struggle, commending their sincere patriotism, their devotion for action and sacrifice, and their stoicism in the face of oppression, exile and imprisonment. With these high deeds, they provided the best expression of the conscience of the people and the country. In the forefront of all comes the late Habib Bourguiba, the Leader of the national movement, and the first President of the Republic.
We also wish to express our great consideration to the men and women from the generations of Independence who contributed to establishing the foundations of the modern state and, in their turn, undertook valuable action in building the nation and freeing it from under-development, while showing a high sense of commitment and a firm determination to surmount difficulties. They thus had the honor of consolidating the foundations of independence and national sovereignty, in the same way as their predecessors had had the honor of taking part in the struggle and the resistance aimed at liberating the country and recovering its dignity.
While saluting, from this rostrum, all militants and freedom-fighters who are pursuing with us today the process of Change, we reaffirm our constant consideration and sustained care for them, and our recognition of their high status and of the efforts they have exerted in the service of the country; for they constitute an example to follow for our young generations. On this occasion, we announce our decision to increase, once again, the allowance offered to the veterans of the resistance.
I also take this occasion to express our consideration and thanks to all brotherly and friendly peoples and countries, and to all liberation movements in the world, which, in that period, supported the Tunisian cause and sustained it in all UN and international bodies.
Fellow citizens,
Faithfulness to the achievements of our predecessors implies enriching and consolidating these achievements. For independence is a trust bequeathed from one generation to the other. We undertook the Change of November 7, 1987 out of faithfulness to the blood of our martyrs, and of the desire to preserve the country's integrity and glory, and to save it from the situation of weakness and decline to which it had fallen, and from the dangers that threatened to undermine its entity, to jeopardize its gains, and to make it, once again, subject to covetous desires.
It was a Change for the sake of Tunisia, its independence, its people's sovereignty. We wanted this action to safeguard the country's gains and promote them to the level of the aspirations and hopes cherished by the people. We are working, in line with a comprehensive reformist vision and a modern approach, to ensure the country's progress and invulnerability. For today, independence encompasses economic invulnerability and the reinforcement of social cohesion, as well as the consecration of the people's will, within a context of rule of law and the values and institutions of the Republic, and on the basis of the foundations of a national identity deeply rooted in our authentic culture.
Fellow citizens,
Our people's invulnerability is further reinforced by its deep awareness of the significance of independence, its attachment to its freedom of decision, and its determination to take up challenges and stakes with a high sense of patriotism, responsibility and commitment to Tunisia; Tunisia which remains above all considerations; Tunisia which we want to be invariably for all, and which we build with the efforts of all.
Since the Change, we have undertaken deep reforms at each stage, in the process of building a society embracing democracy, pluralism and human rights. We have adopted a constant process through which we have promoted political life, enlarged the scope of participation for all political parties to contribute to anchoring democracy, and allowed all political and intellectual tendencies to assume their role in national action. We consider this diversity a source of enrichment for the country's progress, which has recently been reinforced by the creation of a new political party, the Green Party for Progress.
We have reached an advanced stage in this process, as reflected through the new constitution which has established the foundations of the Republic of Tomorrow, materialized the people's will, reinforced the country's sovereignty, and deepened our national constants.
We have also provided opportunities for action to national organizations and to the components of civil society, so that they can assume their role in public life.
We have adopted this path with strong will and steadfast determination, and we will move forward on this path with firm steps, premised upon our conviction that democracy implies commitment to the national constants, loyalty to Tunisia, diversity of approaches, and plurality of programs and alternatives, while respecting the right to difference and protecting rights and liberties.
The honor to belong to this generous land requires all its sons and daughters, at home and abroad, whatever their tendencies, to devote themselves to serving the country, to preserving its integrity, and to keeping Tunisia constantly in their hearts and minds.
Fellow citizens,
Economic dependency undermines the sovereignty of states and their freedom of decision, and makes their independence without strong foundation or support. We have, therefore, striven to promote our national economy, providing it with the necessary upgrading in order to facilitate its integration within the world economy; thus making of it a strong foundation for progress and prosperity, consolidating Tunisia's place in the world, and elevating its status among the nations.
Fifty years have passed since independence, during which many gains have been accomplished for Tunisia, allowing it to join the ranks of emerging countries, as shown by most indicators and assessments provided by international institutions, the most recent of which being the analyses made by UN specialized agencies concerning the evolution of the GDP, which rank Tunisia today among the top 20 countries in the world in terms of pace of economic growth, and confirm that Tunisia is qualified, thanks to the results achieved during the past decade, to join, by 2009, the ranks of countries having the highest human development indicators.
We have managed, with God's help, to reach this rank thanks to the deep reforms we have undertaken, and also thanks to our reliance on our people's maturity and intelligence, as well as on the dynamism of its components, the diligence of its workforces, and the richness of its elites and intellectuals.
The battles of today are not the battles of yesterday; and victory is now won only by those who master sciences and knowledge, who adopt the path of innovation, creativity and contribution, and who have full command of modern technologies.
Through our successive programs, the latest of which being our "Program for Tomorrow's Tunisia", we have set for our country an ambitious objective, namely joining the ranks of developed countries.
We have worked to anchor the foundations of the knowledge society, and covered important strides in the process of its establishment. Our aim is to ensure the present and future of Tunisia, and to make sure our country remains a pole of sciences and knowledge. With that Program, we have set for our people an appointment with history, and with modernity and prosperity.
We have spared no effort to mobilize all our people's capacities, relying on its men and women to achieve the progress and development we want for Tunisia.
The stake we have placed on women materializes this determination, and reflects our belief in their active role in ensuring the progress of the country and contributing to the achievement of the set objectives.
Since the Change, we have been keen on consolidating and enriching their gains and on promoting their status, while standing firmly against all reactionary and backward currents, so that women remain constantly a forward-driving force.
Fifty years after the promulgation of the Code of Personal Status, upon a historic initiative by Leader Habib Bourguiba, we reaffirm our determination to move ahead in the process of reinforcing gender equality. This equality is now an irrevocable tangible reality, thanks to the voluntarist policies we have adopted and the reforms we have undertaken, premised upon our personal conviction as well as upon principles we have incorporated into the country's constitution.
We have made women's partnership with men in the family and in society an irreversible matter, and their access to public responsibilities and to decision-making positions an unquestioned reality.
While appreciating the high sense of awareness, patriotism and activism shown by Tunisian women, as well as their role in the struggle for national liberation and their contribution to the action of development, we indeed take pride in the uniqueness of the Tunisian model in this regard in our civilizational and social environment.
In our view, human rights have no significance if women's right remain incomplete. Besides, progress, prosperity, reform and development have no meaning if women do not contribute to them.
We exhort Tunisian women to step up efforts in order to be up to the hopes placed in them and to the responsibility with which they are entrusted in the process of building the future of Tunisia. Women are today in the forefront of the forces of reform and change. They represent one of the bulwarks for the country's invulnerability, as well as a source of brightness reflecting freedom, progress and modernity.
Having established, in our Program for Tomorrow's Tunisia, a special system enabling mothers, who wish so, to work half-time for two-thirds of the salary, while retaining their full rights in terms of retirement and social security cover, we announce the promulgation, in the near future, of the law concerning the implementation of this decision. This law will take effect starting January 1st, 2007.
Our country's celebration of Youth Day tomorrow, concomitantly with its celebration of Independence Day, reflects the duty incumbent upon the new generations to defend the country's gains and serve its interests, after the fashion of the preceding generations which set the best example of sacrifice and struggle for the emancipation of the country.
Youth have always been in the forefront of our people, as well as the expression of its vivacity, and the symbol of its promising future.
We want our youth to be immersed in the spirit of their time, aware of its challenges, capable of meeting them, attached to their identity and to the foundations of their national authenticity, and qualified to compete in the highest levels of science and knowledge, in all fields of culture, arts, creativity and sports, and in all walks of life.
We have exerted great efforts to instill in our youth the sense of responsibility, and offered them wide opportunities to express the aspirations and ambitions they cherish. We have given instructions to listen to them, and made youth consultations a periodic operation preceding the preparation of development plans, and offering hundreds of thousands of Tunisian youth the opportunity to express their views and present their recommendations and suggestions, which we take into consideration when elaborating those plans.
In this context, while appreciating the great success achieved by the third youth consultation, and the results it has reached, which highlighted the qualities of our youth, their familiarity with the issues of their time, and their awareness of their responsibilities, we recommend to take into consideration the results of this third youth consultation in preparing the 11th Development Plan and in defining its programs and objectives.
Employment remains in the forefront of our priorities. We have exhorted all components of society to accord the greatest attention to this issue, and to contribute to finding appropriate solutions to it. We have mobilized the State's structures and institutions to work for consolidating employment and enlarging its prospects. We have also taken initiatives and measures that have made it possible to bring down the unemployment rate to nearly 14%.
Through our Program and the orientations we will adopt in the 11th Development Plan, we will work to make sure the next decade 2007-2016 be a decisive period in the process of achieving comprehensive development and joining the ranks of developed countries, in such a way as to meet the challenge of employment and decrease the unemployment rate by another four points by the end of this decade.
We will also focus our attention on university graduates whose number will significantly increase, thanks to the results of the reform we have introduced at all levels of education and training. We will consolidate their capacities for initiative and project creation, by enriching the existing mechanisms and incentives, and by enhancing investment and exports.
To further enlarge the gates of hope for them, we announce our decision to amend the statutory texts concerning national recruitment competitions, in such a way as to allow university graduates to participate in them till the age of forty.
Fellow citizens,
The coming ten years will be characterized by further action, work and diligence. We have set for this period a number of strategic objectives meeting the ambitions of our people. These objectives include increasing twofold the per capita income so that it reaches 8,000 dinars in 2016, increasing threefold the network of highways, and reinforcing it with a modern communication infrastructure accompanying the building of the knowledge society, and offering larger opportunities for the development of promising sectors with high knowledge content, so that their share of the GDP will increase from 20% currently to 35% in 2016.
In this context, we announce our decision to adopt a modern system of high-speed Internet, through the use of new WI-MAX technologies, which will improve connection to the network, promote fast Internet access for all users, and enhance mobile digital activities. This will help promote remote services in the public service and education, in the transactions of enterprises, and in new economic activities in general. It will also improve performance in all fields, accelerate the pace of growth, and enlarge the communication system for remote labor all over the country, including rural areas and the regions situated far away from cities.
Fellow citizens,
Increasing production and consolidating the competitive capacity of our enterprises are among our top priorities. In our Program for Tomorrow's Tunisia, we have announced a set of orientations aimed at promoting the fiscal system, which will contribute to alleviating the burden borne by enterprises and reducing the high taxes and tariffs imposed on certain goods.
In this regard, we announce our decision to decrease, from 35% to 30%, the corporate tax rate, except for certain sectors, while maintaining the fiscal advantages and incentives offered to investment, particularly in regional development zones.
In the same context, we announce our decision to cancel the maximum VAT rate (29%) currently imposed on certain kinds of goods, and our decision to increase, from 50% to 100%, the VAT interest refund rate, and to adopt preferential formulae for newly-created enterprises, while taking appropriate measures to ensure the balance and efficiency of fiscal rates.
Exportation being one of the fundamental foundations to ensure a pace of development matching our objectives, we give instructions to adopt a permanent fiscal system that will provide long-term investors in the long-term with a clear vision, and enhance the attraction of investment. In this context, we announce the establishment of a tax on profits coming from export operations made by partially-or wholly-export oriented enterprises, with a low rate of 10%, to be imposed on profits and incomings from exports, starting from January 1st, 2008, while maintaining the full exemption for companies benefiting from it under the system currently in force.
Fellow citizens,
While we have been keen on providing productive enterprises with the necessary conditions to enhance their performance and consolidate their competitive capacity, we underline the necessity for each citizen to accomplish his/her fiscal duty on the basis of his/her real income, and in line with the requirements of the law.
To allow citizens to fulfill this duty in the best of conditions, and to consecrate their reconciliation with taxation, we announce our decision for the enactment of a general fiscal amnesty by virtue of which amounts not exceeding 100 dinars will be cancelled, with total exemption from control fines and delay interests, on the condition of paying the principal for amounts exceeding 100 dinars. We also announce our decision to cancel the amounts of fines and other financial penalties not exceeding 100 dinars, and to offer a 50% reduction for higher amounts.
In this same context, we give instructions to adopt the same approach for taxes due to local collectivities, by offering citizens that are paying these taxes for 2006 a 50% reduction concerning the amounts due for the previous years.
We also announce our decision to abolish the taxes imposed on satellite dishes, along with the related arrears.
We hope these measures will mark the beginning of a new stage involving further confidence between citizens and taxation. We give instructions to take the necessary measures in order to ensure the enforcement of the fiscal laws and regulations on the basis of objectivity and equity, which will help stand, with firmness and efficiency, against all forms of fiscal evasion.
Fellow citizens,
We have accorded regional development a special place within our national priorities and development policies, as part of a solidarity-based approach involving all regions and social categories. This has made it possible to consolidate the infrastructure, to reinforce collective equipments, and to diversify the economic platform, in addition to achieving record rates as regards improving living standards.
To consolidate the foundations of development in the regions and in priority zones, in a way that meets the specificities of jobseekers therein, we give instructions to allocate, during the coming decade, 500 million dinars for the implementation of the new integrated development program whose interventions will cover municipal and non-municipal areas, while making sure the target social categories and the components of civil society are involved in conceiving and implementing the program, and while giving priority to inland delegations.
Our ambitious development objectives, and the process we have traced for Tunisia to join the ranks of developed countries, will constitute the main guidelines in setting the orientations and formulating the projects of the 11th Development Plan. In this context, we give instructions for the launch of regional and national consultations concerning this Plan, in order to provide opportunities for all parties to take part in defining its orientations and elaborating its programs.
Fellow citizens,
Social peace being a prerequisite for the achievement of comprehensive development, we have endeavored to provide a social climate characterized by entente and solidarity. We have been keen on facilitating the task of dialogue structures within enterprises, so that they can best accomplish the role with which they are entrusted.
We have provided the necessary protection to these structures and to all other structures representing workers within enterprises, in line with the provisions of labor laws and the international labor conventions ratified by Tunisia. The number of such conventions, since Independence, amounts to 57, including the 8 conventions concerning fundamental rights and syndical rights.
Protection being guaranteed in the Labor Code for workers' representatives in the consultative committee for enterprises and workers' delegates, and offered to trade union delegates in several collective conventions and special statutes, we give instructions, in line with this principle embraced by the Tunisian legislation, to ratify the International Labor Convention No. 135 concerning "Protection and Facilities to be Afforded to Workers' Representatives in the Undertaking."
We are convinced that the social partners' high sense of attachment to the national interest, and the concern for consensus and the awareness of the current challenges shown by the Tunisian General Labor Union and all workers, as well as by the Tunisian Union for Industry, Trade and Handicrafts and all heads of enterprises, will certainly allow them to secure the rights of all, and to anchor positive complementarity among production partners, within a context of civilized relations and deep awareness of the current stage requirements. This will help achieve the hoped-for balance between protecting the representatives of workers, on the one hand, and improving the performance of economic enterprises and reinforcing their capacity to face challenges, on the other hand.
We have always accorded a special care to workers whose employer enterprises face economic or technical difficulties. In 2001, we gave instructions to extend to workers affected by the sudden and illegal closing of their employer enterprises the social security cover applicable to workers laid off for economic or technical reasons, by taking in charge the layoff indemnity and the amounts legally due to them, while maintaining the health cover and family allowances for one year, in addition to the mechanisms of training and reintegration.
To reinforce the system of care provided to this category of workers, we give instructions to increase, from 6 to 12 months, the maximum period of the indemnity paid to them. We also give instructions to simplify the conditions and procedures necessary to benefit from this indemnity and from all other mechanisms of protection.
Fellow citizens,
The cultural and civilizational challenge in our world today is no less important than the other challenges posed. In this period of its history, humanity is confronted with the globalization of culture and the standardization of its expressions, which threatens vulnerable cultures and weak civilizations with disappearance and dissolution. This major challenge can be met only by immunizing, consolidating and enriching the national culture, and by further disseminating it and making it known on the widest scale.
Our determination to guarantee freedom of thought, expression and production, the attention we accord to culture in general, and the care and encouragement we provide to intellectuals and creative people, all stem from our deep awareness as to the importance of this decisive challenge.
A people can, by no means, enjoy sovereignty in the absence of a strong, deep-rooted culture; and a people can, in no way, have an active presence on the world scene without a creative and influential culture.
Keen on further encouraging creativity and production in all cultural, artistic and intellectual fields, we announce our decision to establish a new system called "Creativity Leave", offering intellectuals and creative persons earning wages in the public sector, along with producers of artistic works in all fields, a six-month paid leave, so that they can devote themselves to their creative activity; this leave being renewable on the condition of having a continuous artistic production. We also exhort the private sector to provide further care and encouragement to creative persons and to sponsor the most talented among them.
As we consider Tunisians abroad an integral part of ourselves, an essential foundation for our development action, and a civilizational link with the other peoples of the world, we always underscore the importance of their role in reinforcing the country's invulnerability, consolidating its gains, and enriching its achievements, by making known its choices and orientations, disseminating the brilliant civilizational image of our country all over the world, and defending, with loyalty and patriotism, Tunisia's reputation, integrity and interests.
Fellow citizens,
We are keen on elevating the status of Tunisia among the nations of the world. This is indeed what we are working to achieve through the tenets of our foreign policy, through our attachment to the principles of freedom, security, peace and justice in the world, and through our call for establishing new international relations based on solidarity among nations and peoples, respect of international legality, and dialogue and mutual understanding among cultures, civilizations and religions.
In line with these principles, we reaffirm our constant support to the Palestinian cause and our solidarity with the brotherly Palestinian people. We reiterate our call to the international community and to all influential parties, particularly the Quartet, to pursue the efforts in order to establish a just, durable and comprehensive peace in the Middle-East, which will enable the brotherly Palestinian people to recover its legitimate national rights and to establish its independent state.
We also hope that sisterly Iraq will achieve entente and national unity among all the components of its people, so that it can devote its efforts to reconstruction and development, within a context of stability and serenity.
We will pursue our efforts, jointly with our brothers the Leaders of the Arab Maghreb countries, in order to strengthen cooperation, solidarity and complementarity among our peoples, which will give the hoped-for impetus to our joint Maghreb action in all fields.
We are also keen on intensifying efforts in order to promote joint Arab action, and ensure invulnerability and progress for our Arab Nation.
On the other hand, Tunisia will continue supporting all the good-willed endeavors to consolidate the dialogue of civilizations and religions, and consecrate international security and peace. It will also pursue its efforts, within the organization of the Islamic Conference, to disseminate the principles of moderation and golden mean, and to reject extremism and violence.
We are keen on protecting the interests of our African continent and materializing its peoples' aspirations for further cooperation and solidarity among one another, for achieving integration within the world economy, and for benefiting from the developments of the time and the opportunities of the future.
We attach a great importance to our relations within the Euro-Mediterranean space, given their strategic dimensions. There is continuing dialogue between us on the ways and means to promote those relations to the highest levels of cooperation and complementarity, which will help us consolidate our development process in all fields.
On the other hand, we accord a great attention to our ancient relations with the countries of the American and Asian continents, based on dialogue, consultation and cooperation. We are keen on consolidating these relations and promoting economic and commercial exchange with these countries, in such a way as to serve our mutual interests.
The respect, consideration and confidence enjoyed by our country on the world scene has made of Tunisia an international capital for meetings addressing major issues. This has qualified it to host some of the most important regional and international events, the most remarkable of which being the World Summit on the Information Society, which was held in Tunis last November, and which achieved, as testified by all participants, the brilliant success we had wanted it to achieve at all levels.
Fellow citizens,
In the same way as we are working to promote the present of our country, we are also endeavoring to offer a prosperous future to it and to the coming generations.
This is what we are indeed striving to achieve, through the prospective plans and strategic projects we adopt, with which we anticipate changes and stand ready to meet the expected challenges and win the stakes of the future.
The sacrifices we make are only for the sake of Tunisia, out of attachment to it, faithfulness to its people, and loyalty to its history and prestigious past, and commitment to its glory and dignity.
No obstacle can stand in the way of our accomplishment of this sacred mission. For the confidence of our people in our policy and choices, and our renewed ambition to achieve, with firm steps, further progress for Tunisia on the path of development and prosperity, prompt us to look to the future with confidence and optimism, invoking, in this context, the words of our great poet Aboul Kacem Chebbi: “ If souls aspire to life, fate can only satisfy their desire.”
Long live Tunisia, independent, free and invulnerable forever !
Thank you for your attention.
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