Algerian Debt Towards Spain To Be Converted Into Agricultural Investments

Algeria and Spain initialed Sunday in Algiers an agreement on the conversion of a part of the Algerian debt held by Spain into agricultural investments in the olive-growing industry.

 The agreement was inked by Mr Belkacemi Bencheikh, the CEO of AGRAL, a state-owned company specialized in the development of agriculture, and Francisco Javier Pozo Fernandez-Freire, the representative of LIC, a Spanish engineering projects firm.

The signing ceremony was attended by the ministers of Finance, Hadji Babaammi, of Agriculture, Rural Development and Fisheries, Abdesselam Chelghoum, and Spain’s Ambassador to Algiers, his Excellency Alejandro Polanco. 

The agreement provides for the conversion of a 7-million Euro debt held by Spain into Spanish investments in the shoring up of olive production in Algeria, through a 150-hectare farm in M’sif, in the province of M’sila (248-km southeast of Algiers), 

This came out in a declaration made Mr Belkacemi Benkheikh to the press on the sidelines of the signing ceremony.

The total amount of debt owed by Algeria to Spain is estimated at about 30 million Euros.