Britain Will Finish By Challenging France in the Algerian Market, Osmani

Chairman of Britain- Algeria Business Council, Abderezak Osmani, says in this interview with Echorouk that the British government works on boosting economic cooperation with Algeria by advising local businessmen and employers to seize investment opportunities in the North African nation, stressing that the recent events that shook the region proved that Algeria remains one of the most stable countries and more attractive destination to foreign investments.

British operators are increasingly installed in Algeria. Mr Asmani has an explanation for this. He says: “I think that British media is still remembering the hard times Algeria was going through in the nineties, although things have improved a lot since then. For sure, the recurrent visits paid by British investors to Algeria have efficiently contributed in cleaning up such wrong clichés, as authorities there reserve typical welcome to the British delegations, and the fact that the language is no more a boundary, as Algerians are increasingly speaking English in addition to the existence of translators. And I’d say that the weather in Algeria is still a positive factor that contributes in attracting more investors.” Mr Osmani added that “Well, there are other factors related to events occurring in the MENA region, making of Algeria one of the most stable countries, either politically or economically. Let me tell you that I know a couple of British companies which were about to invest in Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, and then were forced to settle in Algeria and seize the potential investment opportunities there.”

The official said Algerian authorities “have been searching for diversifying cooperation with foreign countries, including with the United Kingdom, in bid to gain a world renown experience,” yet, “I have to say that the North African nation suffers a couple of negatives in terms of the lack of skilled human capacities or the misuse of them.”

He proposed in this regard “to review the vocational and training strategies, in addition to the necessity to build up more prestigious hotels and assuring global services that would contribute in attracting more investments,” as well as calling on authorities “to work more on marketing potential investment opportunities Algeria enjoys.”

Mr Osmani predicts that “British investments in Algeria are to take an ascendant trail,” noting that “the British Ministry of Trade’s figures show a constant increase by 79 percent (£302 million) in bilateral trade exchanges between Algeria and Britain during the first half of 2011, comparing to the same period of last year.” 

As for the French domination in the Algerian market for centuries which could hamper Britain to enter, Mr Osmani said: “British investors have assimilated the message of the Algerian authorities, in terms of diversifying their economic partners, and yet touched the existing opportunities,” adding “I have had a talk with an Algerian official, and told me that France cannot control the hole Algerian market forever; things have to change, or rather have started to change!”

“British are pragmatic, and keep pursuing opportunities, but they don’t take much risk, like Spanish or Chinese; they prefer testing, confirming and then setting up a long term strategy in the target market; so it’s a matter of time only!” he concluded.