Bouchouareb: “Tragic abduction of French national Gourdel won’t affect foreign investment in Algeria”

Algerian Industry and Mines Minister, Abdeslem Bouchouared, has asserted that last week’s ill-fated abduction by a terrorist group in eastern Kabylia region of French national Hervé Gourdel won’t have any untoward repercussions on the flow of foreign investments in Algeria.

The Minister said that such tragic events could unfortunately happen anywhere in the world, stressing that they wouldn’t have any adverse effect on the solid trust of foreign companies in the fast-evolving Algerian market.

A case in point, he said, is the recent signing in Algiers of an 8 billion dollar-worth deal between Algeria and the US General Electric Company designed to promote entrepreneurship and technology transfer in the field of electricity and related matters in Algeria.

The challenge, said Mr Bouchouareb, lies in facilitating the creation of viable companies, improving Algeria’s attractiveness regarding the national business environment and encouraging major international companies to settle in Algeria as part of an enhanced and more flexible foreign investment program to be worked out by the government.

In this connection, a dozen sectors of activity “in strong synergies” have been identified for the implementation of this new outsourced economic policy, namely the car and mechanical industry, pharmaceuticals and the chemical and petrochemical industry, as well as water treatment and the environment, in addition to the foodstuffs industry, railways, textiles and building, Mr Abdeslem Bouchouareb explained.

“Algeria has all assets to be in the very near future, one of the leading emerging countries and industry plays a crucial part in achieving this ambitious goal, he underlined, recalling that the objective set by the Algerian authorities is to reach a 7% economic growth rate by the year 2019.