Is Algeria intent on bailing out the US ghost town of Detroit?

This is the burning question asked by the Member of Parliament Nacer Hamadadouche to Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal.

As a matter of fact, US media outlets revealed of late that the Algerian Minister of Industry and Mines, Abdeslam Bouchouareb, accompanied by the President of the FCE Forum and 43 Algerian businessmen during a visit from 30 November to 5 December to the USA, in the context of the promotion of economic cooperation between Algeria and the United States, announced that Algeria would invest $ 260 billion dollars, by the year 2020, to salvage the flagging industry in the city of Detroit (Michigan), with on focus the automotive sector, which has been hit by bankruptcy since 2008.

The MP told the Prime Minister that this amount exceeds Algeria’s $260 billion foreign exchange reserves and corresponds to the financial package earmarked for the five-year public investment plan in Algeria for the period 2014/2019, at a time when the government declared that we are in the throes of a severe crisis because of falling oil prices and the depletion of investments by over 45%.

The MP drove the point home of his query in his facebook page where he stated that the Prime Minister’s announcement to this effect has taken aback and flabbergasted the national public opinion by feeding a bitter controversy with an acrimonious debate about the contentious 2016 Finance Bill which provides for choking austerity measures in public spending and increased prices of water, gas, electricity, petrol and cars to the dismay of the majority of the Algerian citizens.

As a conclusion, the Parliamentarian asked what is the exact truth about this mooted case and where does this financial package stem from… is that huge amount part of the sovereign wealth funds of Algeria, what are the eventual spin-offs for our country, and who decided that …?

So far, the Algerian authorities have declined to comment on this burning issue.