- Tunisia: An inter-ministerial council chaired by the Tunisian Head of State adopted early February a series of measures for encouraging national companies to move more towards the stock market. The aim is, more precisely, to: i) encourage privatised companies and those whose capital is held partly by banks to be quoted on the stock exchange and to diversify their financing sources; ii) make leasing companies move more to direct financing, through the financial market; iii) set in place the legal framework relative to the securitization of debts. To date, 44 companies have been quoted on the Tunisian Exchange and 6 others have just gained access to it. Stock exchange capitalisation reached 3.3 billion dinars as opposed to 2.4 billion end 1998 when the growth of participation in foreign investments reached the rate of 21%.