Algeria keeps up investment new measures, says FM

Algerian foreign minister Mourad Medelci said his country will continue taking measures meant to protect the national economy from the global financial crisis.

• The European Union has criticised those measures while Medelci described the criticism as a step back from the association agreement the EU and Algeria signed in April 2002.
• “Our decisions intended to protect the national economy are determined by two main objectives. The first one takes in consideration the global financial crisis. The second is based on the investment law experience 2001 which did not come up with what was expected,” the minister told Echorouk.
• Last week, EU ambassador to Algeria Laura Baeza critised the measures the government took to protect the national economy including the decree on commercial foreign companies.
• Finance minister Karim Djoudi said bank branches project in countries where Algerians are living is “in its last steps.”
• “A joint commission is examining the project. It includes representatives from finance and solidarity ministries. It is expected to get official before the end of the year.”