Abderrazak Osmani to Echorouk: “British firms didn’t pay any penny of bribery for investments in Algeria”

Asked by Echorouk’s journalist about the scope and prospects represented by the conference of investment opportunities in Algeria, to be held on December 10 in London, in the presence of Algerian prime minister Abdelmalek Sellal and his UK counterpart, David Cameron, the Chairman of the Algeria-British Business Council, Abderrazak Osmani said this salient meeting would be a major step in the strengthening of the Algerian-British partnership in several sectors of activity.

This high-level conference will be conducive to the building of an excellent partnership between the two friendly countries, he said.

This conference aims at showing to the British investors that Algeria is a country open to business, quoting in this respect Lord Risby who was appointed in 2012 as British Prime Minister Special Envoy for Algeria.

The London conference in which Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and his British counterpart David Cameron will be taking part will be a good opportunity to further boost cooperation exchanges between the two sides with on focus the presentation of the vast investment opportunities offered by the buoyant Algerian market, he indicated.

Regarding energy relations between Algeria and Great Britain, Mr. Osmani noted that the two countries are celebrating this year the fiftieth anniversary of their partnership in this strategic sector of activity.

In this regard, he told Echorouk that bilateral trading has significantly increased in the past two years in the field of energy and other fields of endeavour, adding that British companies hadn’t paid any penny of bribery in exchange for lucrative investment projects in Algeria in reference to the manifold corruption scandals reported over the past few years within the country.

Mr Abderrazak Osmani underscored that the reasons to invest in Algeria are numerous notably attractive investment opportunities, particular assets, economic stability, ambitious policies of development and sectoral strategies, Access to regional markets, functional and modern infrastructure in conformity with international standards, a qualified, young and competitive labour force, and competitive production factors costs.

“The Incentives for investment in Algeria include, opportunities for financing through public banks, investment funds & financial institutions as well as An intensified protection and international arbitration agreements”, Mr Osmani further explained.

Algeria, he further asserted, is the United Kingdom’s first trading partner in the Maghreb, according to data delivered during a meeting recently held by the Arab-UK Commerce Chamber (ABCC) in London.

Trade volume between the two countries in 2013 hit $8.36 billion up $3.6billion in comparison with 2012 with $6.01 billion surplus in favor of Algeria.

Mr Osmani added that the Algerian market offers “huge possibilities, but which remain poorly known by the British companies.” 

Lady Olga Maitland, President of the Algerian-British Business Council (ABBC) and Abderrezak Osmani, chairman of Algerian-UK Business Council, respectively highlighted the business opportunities in different sectors and displayed with figures the increase in trade and investment between Algeria and the United Kingdom.