According to Art. 6 of the Investment Law No. 71 -2016, companies are allowed to hire foreign managers up to 30% of their total managerial staff during the first three years after establishment or commencement of effective production, with a mandatory reduction to 10% from the fourth year, and a maximum of four foreign managers. Exceeding these limits requires the approval of the Ministry of Labour under the Labour Law.

Art. 3 of the Decree No. 417-2018 includes the detailed list in Appendix No. 1 of economic activities that require prior obtaining a license from the competent administrative authorities, specifying the deadlines for obtaining the relevant licenses, their conditions, and procedures. The list includes the communications sector, covering telecom and internet services, and commercial activities.
Art. 15-bis of Law No. 71-2016, amended by Art. 11 of Law No. 47-2019, creates, within the Tunisian Investment Authority, a commission called the Commission of Authorisations and Approvals, composed of representatives of the ministries and public bodies concerned, which plays a key role in the approval or rejection of investment projects.

Art. 31 ter of Law No. 1 of 2001 provides that the operation of a virtual telecommunications network shall be subject to prior authorisation by the Minister responsible for telecommunications after obtaining the opinion of the Instance Nationale des Télécommunications (INT, National Telecommunications Authority). The conditions and procedures for granting this authorisation are laid down by Decree No 2014-412. Art. 5 of the Decree stipulates that any legal entity wishing to obtain a licence to operate a virtual telecommunications network must, inter alia, have a majority Tunisian shareholding. Operator of a virtual telecommunications network is defined in Law No. 1 of 2001 as any legal entity holding an authorisation for the provision of telecommunications services by means of a telecommunications network and radio frequencies that it does not own.

Pursuant to Art. 22 of the Organic Act No. 2004-63, the natural person or the legal representative of the legal entity wishing to carry out the processing of personal data and their agents must meet the following conditions: be of Tunisian nationality; be a resident of Tunisia; and have no criminal record. These conditions also apply to the subcontractor and its agents.

According to Art. 2 of the Decree the activity of expert auditor in the field of IT security must be carried out by a person of Tunisian nationality. If it is a legal entity providing this service cross-border, it must employ at least three national certified auditors.

Tunisia is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) nor does it have observer status.

According to Arts. 2, 3, 5 and 8 of Decree-Law No. 14-1961, some commercial activities are restricted to Tunisian nationals. Foreigners may hold up to 50% stake in the capital of companies engaged in certain activities, provided that they are managed by Tunisians. These activities are: commission agent, broker, commercial agent, consignee, general representative, general or sales agent, irrespective of the designation under which the activity is carried out; and commercial traveller. Art. 8 prohibits foreigners from engaging in certain specified business activities, such as wholesale distribution and retail trading, except where a waiver is granted by the Minister of Trade. Foreigners wishing to engage in commercial activity are required to obtain a foreigner’s trading permit by the Minister of Commerce. This applies to any form of provision of commerce, including e-commerce. This text has not been revised since 1985.
It is reported that foreigners may, however, set up international trading companies provided that at least 30% of the company's annual turnover is derived from the export of goods of Tunisian origin.

The specifications for the exercise of the profession of commercial advertising agent, as set out in the "Order of the Minister of Commerce and the Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation of 17 April 2020", require natural persons or legal representatives of legal entities wishing to exercise the profession of commercial advertising agent to hold a national licence or its equivalent or to have completed two years of higher education and to provide evidence of at least one year's professional experience in an advertising agency (Art. 3) and to be of Tunisian nationality (Art. 4). The specifications also require that the legal entity be subject to Tunisian law, be managed by Tunisians and that its foreign capital not exceed 50% (Art. 7). Annex 2 of the specifications describes the types of activities carried out by commercial advertising agents and includes digital communication agencies, which deal with the development of websites and online applications, the creation and management of online content and the management of social media networks.

Art. 3 of Decree No. 4773 stipulates that any legal entity wishing to obtain a licence as an Internet service provider must, inter alia, meet the requirement of having a majority shareholding by Tunisian owners.

Art. 26 of Decree No. 1039-2014 provides that offers submitted by Tunisian companies (in public works contracts as well as the Tunisian products in all markets to supply goods) would be preferred to offers from foreign firms and products of any origin other than Tunisian, whenever such services and products are of equal quality, and as long as the price of Tunisian products do not exceed more than 10% the amounts of the offers of foreign companies and the prices of foreign goods.
In addition, Art. 12 of Decree-Law No. 68-2022 provides that an additional preference of 20% of the total price of the contract to bids from Tunisian economic operators for contracts for studies, works and the supply of goods and services, over bids from foreign economic operators.

Art. 9 of Decree-Law No. 68-2022 provides that the public purchaser shall set aside annually for the benefit of startups, as defined by Law No. 2018-20, or for the benefit of innovative purchases, a percentage up to a limit of 10% of the provisional value of contracts for studies, works and supplies of goods and services.
Innovation purchases are defined as invitations to tender for innovative technical solutions which meet the needs of the public purchaser and which do not exist on the market and which enable the public purchaser to stand out, innovate and develop content and services. Arts. 2 and 3 of Law No. 2018-20 state that any commercial company shall be deemed to be a startup if it has obtained the startup label, which shall be granted to a company that meets the following conditions: - It has been in existence for no more than eight years from the date of its incorporation. - Its human resources, total assets and annual turnover do not exceed ceilings set by government decree. - More than two thirds of its capital is held by natural persons, venture capital investment companies, collective venture capital investment funds, seed capital funds and any other investment body in accordance with the legislation in force, or by foreign startups. - Its business model has a strong innovative dimension, particularly technological. - Its activity has strong potential for economic growth.

Decree No. 1039-2014 encourages the participation of national companies with foreign bidders in international public procurement. In particular:
- The specifications encourage foreign bidders to entrust local companies with the execution of the maximum number of orders, products, equipment or services in all cases where local industry and companies are likely to respond to an object part of the command (Art. 22);
- The specifications encourage foreign studies offices to associate one or more Studies Tunisian Studies offices or Tunisian experts (Art. 23);
- When foreign companies specializing in the industrial sector and the development of computer content and software are called upon, the specifications provide incentives with a view to associating specialized Tunisian companies, selected according to announced criteria (Art. 24).
Art. 10 of the Decree No. 68-2022 mandates that foreign bidders must engage local companies to carry out at least 20% of the total value of orders or the provision of goods, equipment, and services for these projects.

Art. 20 of Decree No. 1039-2014 on public procurement stipulates that up to 20% of the estimated amount of work, goods, services and studies contracted in public tenders shall we awarded to small businesses. Art. 169 further states that, if it is impossible to reserve these contracts within the limit of the aforementioned percentage, the public purchaser must indicate the reasons in a report transmitted to the relevant Contracts Control Commission, which expresses its opinion on the reasons mentioned.

Tunisia is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).