Algeria to nationalize closed shops for jobless people

Algerian housing ministry launched a national inventory operation on all the closed shops to enable unemployed young people to exploit them, Echorouk has learnt.

The government is expected to confiscate and national the shops after finding a proper legal formula.

Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal expressed anger over the closing of thousands shops although local governments received instructions to open them.

According to the same sources, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is concerned about the closed shops and criticized authorities for the lack of official figures.

The housing minister ordered to launch a national inventory operation upon request from the Prime Minister.

Shop owners in big cities received prior notices and were given deadlines to open their shops.

The same sources say the government is “determined” to exploit all the closed shops including the private ones in order to offer jobs to jobless people.

Even if the exploitation of the “State’s shops” is easy, the government faces the problem of legal vacuum which forbids private properties exploitation.