The supply side. The IT sector is very fragmented. It is composed of approximately
345 enterprises, of which 300 have less than 10 employees. The branch employs some 6550 persons,
of which half work in the central administration, national technologies centres and public
companies.
The majority of companies are focused on the sales and support of computer hardware, which
account for 68% of the total IT market. Application software and services represent only
26% of the IT market. The menus of most small IT companies include Internet-related services,
such as Website development, content maintenance and multimedia development. Well established
companies instead offer services in more traditional areas such as code programming and database
development.
Tunisia’s IT sector is in the initial stages of development. No clear competitive
advantages have emerged yet. The lack of local access to suitable applications and reliable
providers push many off-shore companies to satisfy their IT needs through their international
partners or contacting directly foreign IT suppliers. This situation removes one of the few
sources of growth for local IT companies
The access to world-level, best-in-class software development practices and services has
become paramount for the future development of the sector. Here is where the liberalization
of the economy can play a critical role.
The need for a quick IT sector development
The local business community is in a process of catching up with the IT adoption level found
in more advanced economies. This process puts pressure over IT companies to quickly increase
the range and the quality of their products and services. The creation of these capabilities
through internal development proves to be expensive and an it would take many years. The
best way to acquire these capabilities quickly is to make products and know-how already available
in developed countries easy to reach by local companies. In order to do so, the establishment
of an attractive IT business environment and the consequent removal of trade barriers are
crucial for the future development of the sector.
In spite of being one of the most liberalized sectors in Tunisia, only 6% of IT companies
are subsidiaries of international firms. The IT sector is still face some issues affecting
the local distribution of IT imported products and services. Examples of these issues
are:
- The on-line supply of services from abroad. Any Tunisian
company who buys imported software can use services provided from abroad. However, there
are difficulties to pay online services such as installation support, help desk and second
level technical support to software firms in foreign currency.
- The protection from software piracy. Open the access to
foreign software houses most be accompanied by strong copyright restrictions. Although
being a member of the WTO, Tunisia still presents many weaknesses in the application of
international author rights law.
- The movement of professional across borders. It is a general
practice in the IT industry that specialists travel to customer offices to work on projects
for a determinate period of time. The possibility for foreigner IT professionals to work
in Tunisia during long period of time is key to offer quick response and low cost transaction
cost.
The following table summarise most of the barriers affecting the development of the IT sector
found in the on-shore and off-shore analysis done here and in the previous article
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