[MENA Focus 2025년 11월호] 튀니지의 기술 도약: 고부가가치 산업으로의 전략적 전환과 한국과의 상생 파트너십

Tunisia’s Tech Leap: A Strategic Pivot to High-Value Sectors and a Win-Win Partnership with Korea

Tunisia is strategically repositioning its economy to move beyond traditional low-skill, low-wage production towards high-value-added processes and diversification into technology-based and skill-intensive sectors. This crucial structural transformation is essential to absorb the country’s growing pool of highly educated graduates and drive sustainable, inclusive growth. Key assets underpin this ambitious upgrade, making Tunisia an increasingly attractive partner for global collaboration, particularly with technology leaders like South Korea.

Tunisia’s Assets and Upgrading Efforts

Tunisia’s commitment to economic transformation is built on its significant human capital and a demonstrated capacity for innovation and export growth in medium-to-high technology goods.

Core Assets for Transformation

• Strong Human Capital: Tunisia boasts a high rate of university-educated graduates, with substantial numbers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. This educated workforce is the bedrock for transitioning into a knowledge-based, skill-intensive economy.
• Established Industrial Base: The country has a long history of industrialization, with existing strengths in the mechanical and electrical industry and a growing capacity in sophisticated manufacturing, including electronics components and aeronautics.
• Innovation Dynamics: Tunisia has shown extensive progress in export sophistication and diversification, with notable increases in the export value of medium and high-technology manufactures over the past two decades. Sectors like e-payment, software services, applied electronics, and pharmaceuticals are identified as key knowledge drivers.
• Strategic Location: Tunisia’s geographic position provides a platform for expansion into Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, offering a significant advantage for foreign firms looking to serve these markets.

The Strategic Pivot

The government’s strategy focuses on actively channeling resources and designing incentives toward high-value-added and knowledge-intensive sectors. This involves:

• Boosting Innovation and R&D: Recognizing that a vibrant Innovation Eco-system is key, efforts are underway to strengthen knowledge networks, improve the regulatory framework, and encourage cooperation between public, private, and academic sectors. The goal is to act on innovation and sophistication factors to develop and harness the growth potential of dynamic SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises).
• Focusing on ICT and Digital: The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector is a prime target for diversification. The government’s “National Digital Transformation Strategy” prioritizes accelerating administrative digitization, cyber security, and the development of high-impact applications such as smart cities, e-learning, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
• Addressing Skills Mismatch: A critical challenge is aligning the high supply of educated labor with the specific, sophisticated demands of the private sector. Reforms are targeting improving the quality of education and professional training and strengthening the link between curricula and workplace skills, including both technical and soft skills.

A Win-Win Partnership with South Korea

Tunisia views South Korea as a key partner due to its global leadership in technology and its model of economic development rooted in innovation. The emerging partnership is explicitly built on mutual respect and a win-win approach, aiming to move beyond traditional donor-recipient relationships.

Areas for Mutual Benefit

• Technology Transfer and Digital Transformation: Korea’s expertise in leading the Fourth Industrial Revolution, particularly in ICT, is invaluable. The successful implementation of TUNEPS, Tunisia’s online public e-procurement system, modeled after South Korea’s national system (KONEPS) or the Tunisia Land Information System (TLIS), a large-scale, multi-phase initiative aimed at establishing a comprehensive, national-level land information management system exemplify this collaboration. This partnership does not only serve Tunisia’s digital strategy but also positions it as a showcase for Korean technologies in the region.
• Skills and Human Resource Development: A central pillar of partnership is the human element. Collaborations, such as projects focusing on strengthening employment policies and supporting the creation of ICT-based jobs for youth and women, involve sharing Korea’s best practices in training, skills development, and fostering technology-driven start-ups.
• Investment and Market Expansion: Tunisia offers Korean companies a quality human resource base and a strategic platform to expand their operations into European, African and Middle Eastern markets. Key sectors targeted for increased Korean investment include the automotive industry, technology, and pharmaceuticals.
• Knowledge Exchange and Diplomacy: Beyond economics, Tunisia-Korean cooperation is expanding to include joint research projects between universities and the promotion of cultural and educational exchanges, such as Korean language programs in Tunisia. This holistic approach fosters deeper diplomatic and economic ties.

By leveraging its educated workforce, making concerted policy efforts toward high-tech and skill-intensive sectors and combining these assets with Korea’s technological and development expertise, Tunisia is seeking to create a compelling proposition. Partnering with South Korea, a global technological powerhouse, provides the essential knowledge and investment to introduce the necessary paradigm shift that will secure Tunisia’s position as a stable hub and reliable partner for Korea in trade and technology in the Mediterranean, Africa and beyond.