2024-02-29 10:21:33
“The orange economy is not just any name or a simple fad, but it is a sector in its own right that has been around for a long time. It is time for Tunisia to position itself in this sector,” said Aslan Ben Rejeb, president of the Confederation of Citizen Enterprises of Tunisia, on the sidelines of the first event of the professional group of creative industries reporting to the central management of SMEs. Fouad Omri, doctor in AI, reveals to us, during this same event, that “Tunisian genius is behind countless successes in several countries around the world. But this creative potential is not exploited.
Today, Tunisia has every interest in activating the potential of the creative economy, a sector which contains enormous opportunities for wealth and job creation. This is what, in short, Aslan Ben Rejeb, president of Conect, said on the sidelines of the recent first event of the professional group of creative industries reporting to this employer. Bringing together several representatives of public institutions, this event, which was held on the theme “The transformative power of the orange economy: stimulating progress and social well-being” helped to shine the spotlight on an industry still nascent but with a bright future. “I think that the orange economy is a sector with high added value and employability with significant growth potential. But we are not yet aware of it. The role of Conect is to popularize the concept of the creative economy and to encourage reflection on this subject, by benchmarking with international experiences and drawing inspiration from them. The objective is to highlight the importance of creative sectors from the point of view of growth and job creation,” said Ben Rejeb. He explained that Tunisia can position itself in this intangible economy given the significant source of creativity it contains. However, we do not yet have the know-how to transform this creativity into products, he specifies. “We don’t know how to sell the thing […] It is, well, an economy in its own right. Its activities give rise to diversified products such as video games, artistic creations, local products… I think our role is to prove that there is an identity specific to Tunisia that we can promote. In certain regions of Tunisia, there are professions which – if we manage to highlight them – can create social cohesion around this. The orange economy is not just any name or a simple fad, but it is a sector in its own right that has been around for a long time. It is time for Tunisia to position itself in this sector,” he said.
A necessary common effort
To unlock this potential, the president of Conect believes that it is first essential to get rid of this attachment to the traditional part of the economy. “We are surprised why we are heading towards deindustrialization when the largest capitalizations in the world are from the service sector. Oil, cigarette or alcohol manufacturing are no longer among the top sectors in terms of market capitalization.
It is the service companies which now occupy the top of the list and you only need to look at the GAFA (editor’s note: the most powerful companies in the internet world). We need to get off the beaten track, out of our comfort zones and focus on this new economy,” said Ben Rejeb. He affirmed that alternative economies today open up new prospects for young people who are looking for jobs and opportunities. “And here comes the role of associations, civil society, employers, but also public authorities to set the tone and to say that there are paths other than the traditional sectors of crafts, agriculture, industry and services,” he concluded.
Artificial Intelligence at the service of creativity
For his part, Fouad Omri, doctor in AI, underlined, in a statement to The Press, that, thanks to its internationally recognized skills, Tunisia has built a solid reputation in the creative fields. “The Tunisian genius is behind countless successes in several countries around the world. But this creative potential is not exploited,” he says.
In this sense, he added that artistic genius can be exploited in various fields, including industries, such as the aeronautics industry, or even heavy industry, thanks to digital twin technology.
Evoking the subject of Artificial Intelligence, Dr Omri believes that this technology will certainly contribute to the destruction of a significant number of jobs as well as the disappearance of several professions, but it cannot replace the artist. “Tunisia can rely on the creative sector to create added value,” he insisted.
Game programming video, a promising activity
Present during the event, Maher Sarouli, president of the Electronic Sports Federation, explained that the young organization works not only to develop and promote this type of sport in Tunisia but also to encourage gamers to learn game programming for that they can benefit materially from this activity. He added that, thanks to the solid structuring of the sector as well as the support of the supervisory ministry, Tunisia is today among the pioneering countries in the field of electronic sports. A sector which nevertheless remains hampered by various problems such as parallel activities which are gaining ground. “Large multinational companies have entered this sector and recruited gamers for purely lucrative reasons,” he lamented.
It should be noted that on the sidelines of this event, the creative and digital industries group “Creative Hub” under Conect signed two partnership agreements with the Tunisian Electronic Sports Federation (TunESF), on the one hand, and the Higher School of Economic and Commercial Sciences of Tunis (Essect), on the other hand. The agreement signed with Essect aims to promote the employability of young graduates in entrepreneurial management and marketing in the cultural industries. The one concluded with the TunESF stipulates the joint organization of events, forums and meetings around the various disciplines of electronic sports and paves the way for the creation of an academy for video game testers and supports the creation of projects in this area.
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