President Bouteflika exhorts Algerians to bail Algeria out of its oil dependency

The President of the Republic, Mr Abdelaziz Bouteflika, has urged the Algerian youth to pool efforts in a bid to foster a national economy devoid of its excessive dependency on hydrocarbons.

In a message on the occasion of the celebration Wednesday of the 60th anniversary of the National Student Day, on 19 May, the Head of State affirmed that “today more than ever before, it is time for our youth in general and our elite in particular to unite and to be at the forefront of the creation of an economy free of the excessive dependency on hydrocarbons. We also need to ensure the continuation of the process of the socio-economic development which has reached a remarkable level up to now.”

President Bouteflika urged the Algerian youth to respond with the same determination of their predecessors’ during the Glorious Liberation War. Youth “have to be strong-minded to take up this challenge for a better and a more prosperous future for our people and to preserve our country’s independence. This independence can only be consolidated and preserved by financial and human autonomy,” the Head of the State added.

Furthermore, the President of the Republic stressed that “independent Algeria is committed to making of the acquisition of knowledge and sciences a top challenge and a high priority, and also a revenge since our people was deprived of having access to learning during the barbaric colonial period. Algeria is also eager to arm its future generations with sciences and knowledge, enabling them to contribute to the great battle, that of building and development,” he underlined.

“The greatest achievement of independent Algeria remains education provided to its children since independence,” stated President Bouteflika, adding that “the attendance by a quarter of the Algerian population in schools, institutes, training centers and universities, despite the difficult financial situation, due to the decline in oil prices, is the most telling evidence of this advancement.”

President Bouteflika’s message coincided  with the return of talk about the government’s declared intention to resort to external borrowing as an option to finance investments in Algeria during the next phase, after the state budget deficit reached a peak in recent months by recording in a matter of two months a depletion of 1400 billion dinars.

To this effect, Finance Minister Abderrahmane Benkhalfa sought to clear the way for such a contingency to salvage the crisis-ridden economy by confirming recently that the recourse  to foreign borrowing is not a defect, arguing that several major world powers opted for it in order to materialize their development projects.