Tunisia - Competitiveness Support Programme II (PAC II)

Competitiveness Support Programme II (PAC II) was in keeping with the continuity of the Bank’s operations aimed at supporting the efforts of the Tunisian authorities concerning their strategy for the reform of the economy with a view to its integration into the EuroMediterranean Free Trade Zone further to the signing of the Association Agreement with the European Union (AAEU). PAC II was a follow-up to PAC I, whose comprised 19 measures broken down among the following five components: (i) restructuring/modernization of the Banking system; (ii) related reform of public and parastatal enterprises; (iii) revitalization of the Treasury securities market; (iv) modernization of monetary management instruments; and (v) strengthening of insurance companies and OPCVM (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS)). PAC I was implemented satisfactorily in 2001. In the same way as PAC I, PAC II was designed as a joint programme with a common matrix of measures and disbursement conditions, with the World Bank and the European Union. It comprises 51 measures, including 28 disbursement conditions broken down into four sub-components: (i) the macro-economic framework; (ii) the business and private investment environment; (iii) the consolidation of the insurance and financial sectors; and (iv) ICT sector reform.