Germany Threatens French Investments In Algeria

Algeria is currently the most stable place in the Arab Maghreb region axis, and is considered a key ally of France, French senior official in charge of the Franco-Algerian Industrial and Technological Cooperation, Jean-Louis Levet, said on Monday, in an interview with the economic daily “La Tribune”.

“France could move forward in cooperation with Algeria by signing an agreement, like that which was signed with Australia in various fields of activity for progress”.

French official did not hide fear of the fierce competition that the French investments are facing in Algeria; “In front of the international competition in the region, especially from Germany. I am convinced that we, the French, must be the key actors in Algeria’s development strategy and work with it”.

“There are many Franco-Algerian realized partnership agreements or in progress, especially in the Algerian private sector”.

“I realized quickly that my job must also include the private sector, because during the my movements, I gradually discovered that there are several Algerian contractors who are making great efforts to develop their institutions through the constant investment in the production of their goods and distribution, and ensuring the quality and the performance of their workers”.

Regarding the project of Peugeot, which is under completion, in order to create the Citroen factory in Oued Telilat (western Algeria), near Oran, in partnership with the Algeria Company “Condor”, the French official, expressed the hope that this project will be achieved “in order to mobilize equipped Frenchmen and create hundreds of jobs locally”.

“Algeria will not be just a market. If you want to summarize in a sentence to all the principles that drive my work I say that if we continue in the search for customers, we’d better find partners and it applies to Algeria for several reasons, as we, the French, are not going to be just a market, as well. The mutual confidence is the most important”.

“Algerians know us more than we think. Let’s be in the level of bets by preparing step by step for the future”.

“On the whole, in the strategic side, we can say that the bilateral cooperation between Paris and Algiers is at the core interface of Europe- Africa, because Algeria is located in the heart of North Africa with very important countries like Morocco and Tunisia. For a country like France, the axis of Paris-Algiers must play a very and perfect structured role like Paris-Berlin axis”.

Statements of the French official Jean-Louis Levet, are contrary to a report that was issued by the French Treasury Directorate, in February 2016, which stated that the Algerian-French partnership noticed an “exceptional” course, since the socialists victor by Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace, but the Directorate considered it an “unbalanced partnership”, as the French still, despite the benefits they received from Algeria, refuse to invest in Algeria and prefer it to market their products only.

According to the report of the French public treasury, the French investments in Algeria have fallen since the year 2012 compared to the period from 2008 to 2012, and 2013 was the worst, because they were operations of “investments withdrawal”.

“Volume of French investments in Algeria during 2014 was 0.6 million euros, after the decline in investments during 2013, with minus 112.7 million euros”.

An official report that was released by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in February 2016, exposed the marketed claims about the evolution of investment of French companies in Algeria, which were merely French wholesale goods operations or rather marketing under the cover of investment in Algeria, as figures that were released showed that the French investments did not exceed 0.6 million euros in 2014, while they were nearly nonexistent in 2013.

The two years 2014 and 2015 noticed a rupture with the orientations of investments, over the past five years, as the average size of French direct investments in Algeria during the period from 2008 to 2012 reached 250 million euros.

Previously, Bernard Emié, Ambassador of France to Algeria, said in a statement, in November 2016, that the French investments in Algeria allowed the hiring of more than 140.000 workers, and that the French French investors show large importance to investment in the new industrial areas, that were recently created in Algeria, particularly in the field of milk and food manufacturing industries, as the port of Mostaganem (western Algeria) is considered the primary and exclusive crossing for the French imported cars, especially Renault.