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1. Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. Labour market trends and active employment policy. The Committee notes the information supplied by the Government in September 2006 in reply to its direct request of 2005. The Government indicates in its report that a total of 57,099 women and 49,148 men have benefited from employment incentive programmes either through work experience schemes or job/training contracts. The Committee notes that the Vocational Integration Fund (FIAP) has enabled more than 48,000 women (66.26 per cent of beneficiaries) to follow a course of vocational training over the last seven years. The Government indicates that the National Employment Fund aims to fund operations to improve the qualifications of jobseekers and that more than 565,000 persons, 35 per cent of which were women, benefited from its measures between 2000 and 2005. The Committee reminds the Government of its wish to evaluate information on the way in which the main areas of economic policy, such as the monetary, budgetary, commercial or regional development aspects, contribute “within the framework of a coordinated economic and social policy” to the achievement of the employment objectives laid down by the Convention. In this respect, it asks the Government to include in its next report detailed information on the overall situation, level and trends as regards employment, unemployment and underemployment, particularly for women and young persons seeking access to the job market.

2. Employment market policies to promote balanced and integrated regional development. The Committee notes that regional development has absolute priority owing to the fact that it constitutes a strategic choice in the country’s development policy. The Government indicates that the Ministry of Youth Employment and Vocational Integration has developed a local approach for the promotion of employment and the creation of enterprises with the participation of the social partners of the region concerned. Each region has drawn up a Regional Plan for the Creation of Employment and Enterprises fixing employment priorities and annual objectives. The Committee requests the Government to supply information on the results achieved by the measures adopted to promote balanced regional development of productive employment.

3. Promotion of small and micro-enterprises. The Government indicates that it has developed training and support measures for promoting small and micro-enterprises. A one-year training programme has been set up for holders of higher education diplomas and short training courses in self-employment for young persons at national and regional levels are also available. In this respect, support measures for small enterprise funding have been in place since 1981 with the establishment of the National Fund for the Promotion of Handicrafts and Small Trades (FONAPRA) and, in 2005, the Bank for Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Funding. The Committee notes that the Tunisian Bank of Solidarity (BTS) facilitates access to bank credit for entrepreneurs and that it financed 81,803 micro-enterprise projects between 1998 and 2005, including 25,437 set up by women. The Committee asks the Government to continue promoting full productive employment particularly by the setting up of small and micro-enterprises. In this respect the Government may wish to refer to the provisions of the Job Creation in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Recommendation, 1998 (No. 189).

4. Collection and use of employment data. The Committee again asks the Government to indicate in its next report what steps it has taken to coordinate the various information systems (National Employment and Self-Employment Agency, Employment Observatory and National Institute of Statistics) for the production and dissemination of statistics on the labour market.

5. Article 3. Participation of the social partners in the preparation and formulation of policy. The Government indicates that the Higher Council for Human Resources Development, which comprises members of the Government and representatives of the social partners, issues opinions on aspects of national policy regarding employment, education, higher education and vocational training. The Committee requests the Government to continue to supply information on the effectiveness of the participation of the social partners in the preparation and application of the various employment programmes, stating in what way representatives of other sectors of the active population, such as persons working in agriculture and the informal sector, are consulted.