TUNIS: Tunisia's move towards democracy may be a welcome boost to the economy, but some observers argue that a purge of remnants of the old regime will also have to be part of that process.
The initial euphoria of the uprising that ousted the country's authoritarian ruler Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali is fading.
And while other countries are helping to freeze the assets of Ben Ali and his family, the real work of kickstarting the country's economy needs to be done at home.
For some, that will have to include getting rid of the key members of the party that ran Ben Ali's regime, the detested Constitutional Democratic Assembly (RCD), which many protesters would like to see banned.
At the country's agriculture ministry, which accounts for 10 percent of Tunisian GDP, the new minister Mokhtar Jalleli told AFP they were still scrambling to get on top of the most urgent issues.
"We have occupied farms, milk distribution problems: in some departments of the ministry, people are on strike for bonuses promised by Ben Ali," he said.
"In others, they are willing to resume work if their boss, from the RCD is fired...," Jalleli said.
Jalleli, part of the opposition movement that helped overthrow the former regime, said some 10,000 civil servants were also RCD members.
"People were obliged to join the party, to pay to have a job," he said. But a wholesale purge of these people would actually be in danger of destabilising the economy, he warned.
Economist Adbeljelil Bedoui on the other hand called for "strong signals" -- and quickly -- that "heads are falling, or citizens' and investors' confidence will not return."
If stability was to return, he argued, "the State has to take control or nationalise business of the Ben Ali clan," he argued.
They also had to tackle the black economy, which according to his estimates represents between 36 and 40 percent of non-agricultural employment -- and between 10 and 15 percent of GDP.
Already the government has nationalised two banks, the Zitouna and Central Bank of Tunisia, taking them from people linked to the Ben Ali clan. Both were facing collapse.
And while Bedoui does not expect miracles from the interim government, with a deficit of around 3.6 percent and public debt of only 40 percent, they do have room for manouevre, he argues.
In the business community meanwhile, the mood is determinedly upbeat.
Habib Gaida, president of the Franco-Tunisia chamber of commerce, said nearly all French businesses operating in the country had got back to business within two days of Ben Ali's fall -- and they represent 1,270 of the 3,175 foreign businesses operation here.
And in the Port of Rades, in the capital Tunis, which handles 70 percent of the country's import-export, they were more worried about the dockers' strike in France's Mediterranean port of Marseille, he added.
He played down a massive walk-out by dock workers late Tuesday.
The reaction of France, as the main trade partner with Tunisia -- about seven billion dollars (five billion euros) of trade a year -- is crucial.
Zied Lahbib, who is number two at the agency promoting foreign investment, part of the cooperation ministry, welcomed the fact that Tunisia's foreign partners had "very quickly reaffirmed their support".
"The Ben Ali regime was a lead jacket for the business enviroment," said Lahbib. But already there had been encouraging signs.
French hotel giant Accor, which on Monday said it had lost 25 million euros in Tunisia before pulling out of the country two years ago, said it would be back in June to run two hotels in the capital, working with new partners.
"Businessmen from the diaspora are already contacting us to return, because they are Tunisians but also because they want to be the first into the markets, most of all in new technology and computer engineering," he added.
These sectors represent 10 percent of the country's GDP, said Lahbib.
It is still hard to say what impact Ben Ali's downfall will have on the economy, not least because it is only happened two weeks ago. But the government has forecast a loss of 1.6 billion euros, or around four percent of GDP.
Although tourism, which represents six percent of GDP, has been hit by the unrest, the government has pointed out that the peak season for this industry lies ahead.
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