Modern industries 
for global competitiveness 

Tunisia’s industrial sector – including textiles, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and the automotive industry – offers great potential for securing high-quality jobs and creating new ones.

According to the Tunisian Agency for Industry and Innovation, the country’s industrial sector comprises approximately 4,600 companies employing more than half a million people. Due to its geographical proximity to Europe, Tunisia is an important industrial partner, particularly for France, Italy, and Germany.

At the same time, unemployment in Tunisia remains very high, with young people and college graduates being particularly affected. Well-educated young people lack career prospects, leading to a correspondingly high rate of emigration.

Since 2018, Invest for Jobs has been supporting the Tunisian Ministry of Industry in the digital transformation and modernization of Tunisian industrial enterprises as part of the “Vers une Industrie 4.0” initiative. The goal is to strengthen Tunisia’s global competitiveness in the long term, promote innovation, and create decent jobs.

To this end, five Industry 4.0 competence centres have been established in collaboration with the industrial parks in Bizerte, Monastir, Sidi Thabet, Sousse, and Sfax. These centres closely link business and academia, advise companies on their path to Industry 4.0, and train employees through education and continuing professional development. The competence centres are building a network of local Industry 4.0 experts and trainers. The centres also provide modern, automated machinery – such as industrial 3D and laser printers or computer-controlled CNC milling machines – for training and testing innovations.

In addition to the Ministry of Industry, close local partners include the state agencies for industry and exports. Since the initiative’s inception, institutions from Germany such as the Fraunhofer Institute and Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg, as well as companies like Festo and Dräxlmaier, have supported the Tunisian industrial initiative. For example, they provide machines for training purposes and instruct experts on how to operate them. The trained experts, in turn, instruct skilled workers on how to operate the equipment and make the machines available for testing innovations.

By 2025, over 1,500 people had participated in training and continuing education programmes as part of the initiative. In addition, around 200 jobs were created, working conditions were improved for approximately 800 people, and 30 Tunisian industrial companies introduced innovations.