Algerian industrial sector doomed to fall apart: Expert says

The industrial productivity either in the private and public sectors has registered a sharp decrease over the first quarter of the current year in comparison to the last year’s same period as a direct consequence of the new measures regulating foreign trade implemented by the Algerian authorities since August 2009

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• The strategy followed by the former Minister of industry and promotion of investments Abdelhamid Temmar has had negative repercussions on the Algerian industry in the sense that he set up a list of more than 1200 public companies to be sold to private national and foreign operators.
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• The average rate of shrink of the productivity has topped 4.5% if compared with the 2.7 % of the first trimester of the year 2009, according to estimates released by the national Office of Statistics.
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• This sharp downturn is mainly due to the difficult economic situation facing the Algerian small and medium sized enterprises in addition to the closing of hundred others, according to the Algerian Entrepreneurs Forum.
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• The situation was made worse by the slump of the production in the sector of mines by 10% in addition to other branches by 1 % as well as the sector of construction and public works, though the authorities have resorted to import more than 5.2 million tones of cement to offset the shortage domestically, it said.
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• In a declaration to Echorouk, the economic expert Abderrehmane Mebtoul has indicated that 70% of the Algerian companies have returned back to the same level of productivity as they were in 1991, despite the allocation of $40 billions for their rehabilitation since that period.