Bouchouareb: “We won’t bring any single car outweighing the needs of Algerians during 2017”

The Minister of Industry and Mines, Abdeslam Bouchouareb, has announced the signing of a convention providing for the setting up a “Volkswagen” vehicle factory in Algeria officially by the month of March 2017, thus allowing the German car maker to seriously embark, by then, upon the manufacturing stage for the production of Algerian vehicles in partnership the German manufacturer.

The minister further pointed out that the quota of imported cars for the year 2017 has not been identified yet, saying that a Committee is to be set up in coordination with the Ministry of trade and the sectors concerned to address the issue and pinpoint the number of vehicles that will enter the Algerian market during the upcoming year.

Speaking sharply to this effect, Mr Abdeslam Bouchouareb said: “We won’t import any single car that outweighs the needs of Algerians during 2017”.

Referring to Algeria’s economic juncture, the industry and mines minister underlined that Algeria has made significant strides in diversifying the national economy and promoting the recovery of the industrial sector through adequate reforms that have been brought in since the year 2014.

He indicated that that endeavor was  marked notably by the drafting of four specific laws pending the ratification of two reform-oriented additional laws aimed at spurring economic growth by the People’s National Assembly before the end of this year as part of ongoing efforts to drastically lessen the country’s dependency on hydrocarbons.

The minister recalled that his sector is currently working to optimize its capabilities ensuring genuine economic recovery through the launch of strategic and structural projects in Algeria outside the hydrocarbons sector in the iron and steel industry whose domestic production will rise from two million tonnes to 12 million tonnes per year by 2019 after the commissioning of the plant in Oran  (western Algeria).

Furthermore, Mr Bouchouareb noted that the country’s phosphate reserves are estimated at 2 billion tons in Souk Ahras and Tebessa (eastern Algeria) whose production will rise next year from 2 million tons to 10 million tons per year, of which 8 million tons will be converted to the Algerian market and the rest will be destined to exports.