Chakib Khalil: embassies should attract investment

Algeria’s former energy minister Chakib Khalil Thursday organized a visio-conference in collaboration with El Aouress Young People’s Coordination and the National Coordination in Support of President Bouteflika. The conference was addressed to a number of association chiefs and students in the province of Batna. He made a presentation from home about the construction of a diversified economy to replace hydrocarbons and reach economic growth.

Khalil enumerated 16 points which should be applied by Algerian authorities to achieve their goals. He called for relying on industry, agriculture, services, sea fishing and tourism. He also stressed the necessity of computer systems modernization in banks and the creation of an Algerian bank abroad.

The minister also called for integrating parallel market to the official economy in order to invest in agricultural, industrial and touristic projects. The Algerian foreign ministry should play economic roles via embassies and businessmen to attract investments and enter foreign markets, according to Khalil.

He believes that the required growth needs huge foreign investments. He called on the Algerian government to be flexible in the application of the 51-49 rule.

“Some say it is necessary to limit this rule in hydrocarbons and telecommunications. Actually, it would have been better if this rule did not exist in other fields. Yet, the law can not be ignored as long as it is not changed,” he said.