President Ben Ali’s swearing-in address

President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali Thursday addressed the Tunisian people during an extraordinary session of the Chamber of Deputies and Chamber of Advisers, on the occasion of his swearing in after his re-election for a new presidential term.

Here is the full text of the address:

“In the Name of God, Merciful and Compassionate,

Mr. Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies,

Mr. Speaker of the Chamber of Advisers,

I am pleased to convey to you my greetings and congratulations on being re-elected as Speakers of the Chamber of Deputies and the Chamber of Advisers. I also wish to offer my congratulations to all members of the Chamber of Deputies on being elected for this new parliamentary term. I also would like to convey my greetings to all members of the Chamber of Advisers who are present with us today. I take this occasion to reaffirm our deep consideration for the legislative branch, with its two chambers, as it materialises the values of the Republic and consecrates the people’s sovereignty and free will.

Since the early days of the Change, we have been keen on rehabilitating the republican system, restoring the people’s sovereignty, and anchoring the rule of law. Alongside the Chamber of Deputies, we established the Chamber of Advisers so as to consolidate the legislative power, enrich political life, and promote the democratic practice and pluralism. Pluralism has, in fact, become a tangible political reality in the makeup of the Chamber of Deputies where the national political parties hold today and for the first time 25% of the seats.

This is, in fact, a firm and irreversible political choice which we are consolidating and promoting at each stage, so as to expand the scope of participation and increase the presence of national political parties and civil society components in public life.

We, once again, affirm that we do rely on the national political parties and their role in guiding citizens, raising awareness of our national tenets and providing the necessary mobilisation around them. We also reaffirm our determination to make sure the diversity of visions and approaches constitutes a source of enrichment for our country’s democratic climate.

We consider the differences of opinion as obvious and even necessary to enrich public life and promote consensus around the constant principles which are embraced by our people and which we are committed to adopting and defending. Patriotism and allegiance to Tunisia alone are at the top among these principles.

Patriotism is indeed an integral part of faith. Attachment to the country, commitment to defending it, and faithfulness to its foundations and specificities, constitute an authentic education and a deep-rooted culture that are born from the early years of schooling, and are then nurtured in the family, in society, and in all fields of life.

Patriotism cannot be subjected to blackmail, outbidding or personal calculations because it is a reflection of sincerity and honesty, devotion and sacrifice, and a sense of honour and belonging.

An authentic Tunisian is one who never accepts that any party causes harm to his country, and never accepts to be party to this harm, in whatever form and for whatever reason.

A true patriot never takes his disagreement with his country abroad, to distort its image and seek foreign support. Such a behaviour is ethically, politically and legally unacceptable.

It brings its perpetrator nothing but contempt, even from those he tries to incite against his country. Moreover, this behaviour does not give its perpetrator any immunity vis-à-vis Tunisian law which remains the fundamental reference for all citizens.

Some individuals believe that the titles they attribute to themselves allow them to violate the laws of the country and to cause harm to it, so that when they are held accountable they seek a political cover with which they justify their acts which, in reality, fall under the common law and have nothing to do with their affiliations and views.

In this context, I would like to point out that the principle of equality before the law is provided for in the Constitution, and is incompatible with any notion of exception or immunity that those individuals might evoke. The law is above all, and all citizens are equal before the law.

To all those who do not respect the Nation’s sanctity and integrity, and who continuously attempt to do harm to their country, speak ill of it, and persist in casting doubts, fabricating lies, and inciting others, we say: the people are the only arbiter; they are the true deciders and have the final say. The Tunisian people have asserted their position through the ballot box, within a context of rigorous respect for the law, clarity and transparency. They have, once again, proved their awareness and maturity, their faithfulness to their country and its gains, and their confidence in its leadership and its policy guidelines.

In the same way as it accepts and welcomes constructive criticism and honest difference of opinion, Tunisia is committed to its independence, sovereignty and freedom of decision, rejects any interference in its affairs, and does not accept that anyone speaks ill of it or damages its reputation through false allegations and fabricated lies.

Such interference goes beyond the violation of the sovereignty of our country as it affects the sovereignty of the Arab Maghreb Union and the African Union to which we belong. We have submitted this issue to the presidents of these two organisations in order to adopt the necessary position and protest against those abuses which are contrary to the principle of respect for the sovereignty of states and non- interference in their affairs.

From this rostrum, we reaffirm that our hearts are open and our hands are extended to all Tunisian men and women, without excluding or excepting anyone. Tunisia is indeed the strong and durable tie that binds all of us one another. Our prime duty toward Tunisia is to serve it with devotion, to enhance its status, to sacrifice for its sake, to defend the independence of its decision and to place its interest above all considerations.

With optimism and ambition, we will pursue our action in the service of our people and our country. We have placed our programme for the coming five-year term under an ambitious motto:”together we meet challenges”. We want it to serve as a catalyst for all of us to acquire the abilities and capacities that allow our country to join the rank of developed nations.

We were TOGETHER when we saved the country. TOGETHER we established the plan of reform, development, and modernisation. TOGETHER we defined our country’s major political, economic and social orientations. TOGETHER we successfully went through all the stages our country has witnessed over the past couple of decades since the Change. TOGETHER we managed to accomplish numerous and various achievements that have conferred on our country the civilisational and development dimension it deserves.

Today, we move TOGETHER toward the future, determined, as never before, to meet challenges and win stakes. We have conceived our programme for the coming five-year term on the basis of a comprehensive strategic vision that takes into consideration the aspirations of all social categories and all regions in all fields.

We rely on all Tunisian men and women to adhere to our programme for the future, particularly the constitutional institutions, national political parties, organisations, councils and civil society components.

It is a programme with a rich content, tightly linked to Tunisia’s present and future. It requires that we all be fully mobilised and provide all types of support that contribute to achieving its objectives. For we are stepping into a stage marked by a difficult and complex world juncture that will confront us with huge challenges in all the economic, cultural, environmental, scientific, communication and technological fields. We have no other path but to show more vigilance and to be equipped with a strong resolve for transcendence and success, so as to overcome difficulties, smooth out obstacles, and move always forward with confident and firm steps.

It is a delicate stage in which there is no room for hesitation, routine, failure, deficiency and minimum effort; it rather requires intelligence, knowledge, audacity and a maximum degree of effort and diligence.

Historical experiences show that nothing takes place in this world fortuitously and that the progress of peoples is not offered randomly, but is rather the fruit of a long process of diligent work, earnest action, and efficient performance. In fact, what you harvest depends on what you sow, and the reward depends on the amount of effort you put in.

The people’s adherence to our policy guidelines and to the various programmes we have proposed to them has made of Tunisia today a modern country that is fully integrated in the dynamic of this age. This has qualified Tunisia to be ranked today as the best country in the world as regards the pace of evolution of the Human Development Index since 2000.

These gains and achievements can only strengthen our people’s ability to successfully pursue advancement on the path of progress and development.

We consider that youth, women, our elites and the members of our communities abroad are in the forefront of those who are concerned with this programme for the future, and who endeavour to ensure its success.

Youth are, in fact, called on to increase their interest in public life and to be more involved in its activities as well as to materialise, in their thought and behaviour, the values of volunteerism, dialogue and contribution with which they have been imbued in the family, in school and in society. No doubt, the “Youth Parliament” we announced in our programme for the future will significantly bolster this orientation, offering youth an optimum forum to expand the scope of democratic practice.

We are endeavouring to enable our youth to serve as an effective partner in all that we build and accomplish for our people. We are keen to make sure Tunisia recover its prestige and glory with its youth, interact positively with its time through its youth, and minutely explore its future for the sake of its youth.

As for women, they do remain an element of quietude and serenity, and a sign of modernity and progress in our country. We have taken various decisions and initiatives for them. We announced, in our programme for the future, that one of our major objectives for the coming stage will be to further increase the presence of women in decision-making positions to reach 35% at least, up from 30% currently. We have already started materialising this choice, as illustrated through the makeup of your honourable Chamber in which women hold 27.5% of the seats, compared to 22.8% in the previous makeup of this body.

As regards the members of our national elites in their various areas of specialisation, we are keen on ensuring their significant presence at all levels, as a token of consideration, on our part, for their status and role. For we continuously rely on them to invariably remain a source of creativity, excellence and distinction, and a force of evolution, enlightenment and modernisation, safeguarding our tenets and values, and consolidating the channels of communication and dialogue with the other.

Tunisians abroad are always at the heart of the country, present in its soul and conscience. We are indeed proud of their high sense of patriotism, their adherence to their country’s orientations and their determination to contribute to its development. We will endeavour to increase the care offered to them and to benefit more from their abilities so as to serve Tunisia, defend its interests, and enhance its shining image in the countries of residence.

Given the place enjoyed by the national political parties in our democratic pluralist system, we will increase the amount of the State’s grant offered to the political parties represented in the Chamber of Deputies.

Keen on consecrating freedom of opinion and expression in our country, we will continue promoting the information sector, including the written and audio-visual media, and to improve its performance in terms of form and content. We will also expand the forums of dialogue and discussion of issues of public concern, while facilitating the journalists’ access to sources of news, consolidating the journalistic profession, and improving the conditions of media professionals.

We once again reaffirm that in Tunisia, there are no taboos in the issues and dossiers addressed by the media, except what goes against the law and the ethics of the journalistic profession.

The media content invariably remains the responsibility of the journalists themselves, expressing the realities and concerns of our society with credibility and audacity. We hope this content accurately reflects the intellectual and political pluralism in our country.

To consolidate this choice, our programme for the future provides for developing the tasks and expanding the prerogatives of the Higher Communication Council, so that it can examine and give its opinion concerning the issues falling under its competence.

On the other hand, we will endeavour to further promote quality of life for all Tunisian men and women, through increasing the average per capita income, upgrading hospitals and healthcare institutions, improving the conditions of children and the family, moving closer to full social coverage and generalising it to all occupations, bringing down the poverty rate to the lowest threshold, and providing comprehensive care to the vulnerable categories in our society.

Our programme also provides for developing and consolidating the infrastructure in all regions of the country, reviewing our approach in terms of investment promotion and enterprise creation, moving ahead in achieving the convertibility of our national currency, and increasing the budgets allocated to scientific research, culture and heritage preservation.

Employment remains an absolute priority in our programme for the future, to which we accord the greatest attention, by striving to provide further mechanisms and solutions so as to consolidate the positive results we have achieved in this regard.

Work is a fundamental human right. The state and society should share the responsibility of promoting this right through optimum and efficient means, taking into consideration the opportunities and potentialities of the country.

We will endeavour to materialise the motto we raised in our programme, that “no Tunisian family will remain without a job or a source of income for one of its members, by the end of 2014.”

In line with this principle, we give instructions for establishing a national programme in partnership with the associative fabric, to be launched next month, so as to absorb ten thousand university graduates as part of a plan for providing public interest services.

The young people who will volunteer to join this programme will receive, from the National Employment Fund (21-21) a monthly remuneration extending over a period of twelve months.

Moreover, the services of the Ministry of Employment and Professional Integration of Youth will provide guidance to these young people all along this period, so as to facilitate their integration into working life.

We will also undertake a comprehensive upgrading of the vocational training sector so that it can best serve jobseekers and economic enterprises.

The coming stage will also be marked by the materialisation of the deep reforms we have introduced into the systems of education, training, higher education and scientific research. The aim is to make sure our educational, training and research institutions remain in tune with the scientific, knowledge and technological evolution, enhancing progress and development, and serving as a support base for employment and the creation of sources of income.

We have accorded a special place, in our programme for the future, to the building of the society of knowledge and technological innovation, based on our conviction that no progress or development can be achieved without mastering, adapting and benefiting from modern technologies, in a way that consolidates the foundations of the new economy and expands the prospects of employment and integration in professional life.

In line with this orientation, we give instructions for launching, as a first phase, the establishment of a technological space, over an area of 200,000 sq. meters, in accordance with the most advanced international standards in terms of equipments and basic facilities.

This will consolidate the capacity to attract internationally renowned institutions operating in fields with high knowledge content. We also give instructions for preparing a programme to promote training and the certification of qualifications, as part of partnership with the largest specialised international institutions and the certified training centers.

This programme will cover, in a first phase, ten thousand young people who will obtain certification in the fields of software development, project leadership, network management and computer security.

To enhance the pace of investment in the sectors with high technological content, we give instructions for establishing a coherent strategic plan, with the participation of national competences at home and abroad, and in co-operation with specialised international institutions, to promote our country into a regional hub for promising activities with high employability for university graduates.

It is in this context that lies our decision to adopt the mobile plan approach which we will launch starting from 2010 over a period of five years, to serve as a link between the previous and the next national development plans.

The first mobile plan, which coincides with our programme for the coming five-year period, comes to implement the new qualitative orientations and objectives of our development process in its various aspects and dimensions, and to materialize our vision for the priorities and major stakes of the coming stage, especially as regards water, energy, environment-friendly economy, and food security.

In our speech on the occasion of the launch of the electoral campaign, we expressed our determination to grant further attention to regional development and to promising sectors with high knowledge contents.

We also announced the preparation of a new conception for the encouragement of investment, as provided for in our programme. Today, we give instructions for including new provisions in next year’s Finance Law, so as to extend till the end of 2010 the granting of the investment allowance for projects that concern promising activities or those with a high rate of integration.

In the same context, we give instructions for adopting new provisions that encourage innovation and creativity, through providing special advantages to the university graduates who launch projects in the computer and communication technologies sectors. To boost private initiative as regards small and medium-sized projects and the activities related to the microcredit system, we give instructions today for raising, from 15 to 25 thousand dinars, the ceiling of ordinary credits granted by the Tunisian Solidarity Bank. We also give instructions for maintaining the formula of special funding for university graduates and professional competences, which we previously gave instructions for increasing to 100 thousand dinars.

To expand the activity of development-oriented associations as regards the granting of microcredits, we give instructions for increasing, once again, the ceiling of these credits to 5,000 dinars, while organising the granting of these credits according to modalities and formulae guaranteeing their efficiency and durability.

Having announced, in our programme for the future, the modernisation and development of our customs and taxation system, in a way that alleviates the costs borne by our enterprises and allows them to work in a clear and transparent climate, we give instructions for including a first set of these reforms into next year’s Finance Law.

We also give instructions for decreasing, from five to four, the number of rates applicable in customs pricing, and for reducing customs rates to nearly 1000 customs nomenclatures.

This will give enterprises and manufacturers in general a better margin for the choice of their suppliers and the selection of the components of their production, with less costs and a better quality.

These new reforms will also allow construction and public works enterprises that obtain public contracts outside Tunisia to benefit from the termination of the application of the VAT when these enterprises acquire, from the local market, materials or equipments that are part of the components of the contract.

This measure will encourage these enterprises to get their supplies from the local market, which constitutes an indirect encouragement for export.

In the same context, we give instructions for developing, further clarifying and simplifying the modalities of overpaid VAT recovery, through increasing, from 35% to 50%, the percentage of the advance installment of overpaid VAT reimbursement, without prior control.

This measure concerns transparent enterprises, and aims also at shortening, from 90 to 60 days, the period of recovering the remaining amount due to be recovered. We also give instructions for shortening, from 90 to 30 days, the period for the reimbursement of overpaid tax coming from investment, regardless of the nature or volume of this investment.

We also give instructions for immediately reimbursing each portion of the overpaid VAT decided by the administration, without waiting for the final decision concerning the amounts on which no agreement has been achieved.

We also give instructions for decreasing, once again, from 9% per year to 6%, the late payment penalties for tax debts registered in the records of the tax office, so as to encourage taxpayers who pay their arrears within one year from the date of registering the debt.

We are keen on promoting the citizens’ sense of civic behaviour so that they regularly accomplish their tax duty.

At the same time, we are keen on alleviating the tax burden for social categories having a limited income or specific expenses.

To materialise what we announced in our programme for the future, we give instructions for including, in next year’s Finance Law, a set of taxation measures having a social character, by doubling the amount to be deducted as regards children enrolled in higher education and not receiving a scholarship, and by increasing, from 750 to 1,000 dinars, the amount to be deducted for children with disability.

We also give instructions for increasing, from 2,000 dinars to 2,500 dinars, the tax-exemption ceiling for those who receive the minimum guaranteed wage, while deducting the interests of social housing loans from the taxable income, and applying this same measure to current loans.

In the same context, we give instructions for allowing non- salaried workers to deduct their contributions to social security systems from the required tax base, in line with the objective of achieving full social security coverage by 2014 for all workers, both salaried and non-salaried.

We also announced, in our programme for the coming five-year term, our determination to achieve the full convertibility of the Tunisian dinar by the end of 2014.

We are preparing for this step, after having made encouraging strides in meeting the requirements of external financial liberalisation, through adopting an efficient monetary policy, conferring more flexibility on the exchange rate policy, and consolidating the financial foundations of the banking sector and of our hard currency assets.

To pursue this gradual evolution in our financial and economic situation, we announce our decision to raise the tourist allowance to 6,000 dinars annually, which means an increase by 50%.

We also announce the increase, by the same percentage, of the subsistence expenses for study abroad.

As regards enterprises, we give instructions for liberalising the business travel allowance for exporters, when the expenses of residence abroad for business travels are covered through professional accounts in hard currency, in order to facilitate the professional movements of businessmen, and reinforce the presence of Tunisian enterprises in foreign markets.

To facilitate the transactions of non-resident enterprises established in Tunisia, we announce our decision to abolish the authorisation that was required for transfers related to investment allowances granted to these enterprises.

Mr. Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Speaker of the Chamber of Advisors, We establish programmes and open up prospects for Tunisia that are up to its glorious history and prestige, and are in harmony with our people’s aspirations and ambitions.

We will endeavour to consolidate Tunisia’s place in the world, in line with the pledge we have taken since the first day of the Change, to be devoted to constantly serving it, protecting its integrity, defending its interests, and enhancing its prestige.

Having said this, and as the dignity and invulnerability of the citizens are indissociable from the dignity and invulnerability of their country, I will strive to make sure Tunisians live in security, quietude, serenity and dignity in their country, their heads held high, with honour and dignity, and that Tunisia remains a unique and distinguished model in its regional environment, always respected and held in high regard, and continuously embracing success and excellence.

Almighty God said : “For the scum disappears like froth cast out; while that which is for the good of mankind remains on the earth.” Koran.

Thank you for your attention.”