President Tebboune: Algeria to Create Free Trade Zones With 5 African Countries in 2024

Algeria will create, in the current year 2024, several free trade zones with Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Tunisia and Libya, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, announced in an address during a videoconference, on the occasion of the 41st meeting of the Steering Committee of Heads of State and Government of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

President Tebboune said that “Algeria will witness, in 2024, the creation of free zones with sister countries, starting with Mauritania, then the Sahel countries such as Mali and Niger, in addition to Tunisia and Libya.”

He added that “this integration concerns, in particular, the improvement of infrastructure through the strengthening of Public/Private partnerships, the exploitation of national resources, the use of regional and international infrastructure development funds and other innovative financing tools”.

Tebboune asserted “the great importance that Algeria attaches to investing in the infrastructure, especially in vital fields such as energy, transportation and communications.”

This also involves improving regional production and trade networks through strengthening production capacities and continuing efforts to promote the role of the industrial sector but also to join value-added chains. on a global scale, by promoting the diversity of African industries, supported by Algeria, affirming that Algeria attached major interest to investment in basic infrastructure.

In this context, he recalled the large-scale projects with a continental dimension launched by Algeria, such as the Trans-Saharan Road project linking six African countries, and the highway project linking the cities of Tindouf (southern Algeria) and Zouerate in Mauritania.”

Abdelmadjid Tebboune also underlined Algeria’s commitment to achieving the objectives of economic development and continental integration and the importance of working to improve the effectiveness of economic integration in Africa.

Algeria also launched the Trans-Saharan fibre optic backbone project to develop the regional digital economy in the Sahel, as well as the trans-Saharan gas pipeline which transports gas from Nigeria to Europe via Algeria and the project to develop the rail transport network throughout the national territory, which will be extended to neighbouring countries, following the vision of the trans-Saharan road”, he added.

Algeria’s President called for “the necessary mobilization of more human, technical and financial resources to execute the main continental projects included under the African development agenda for 2063, in addition to strengthening efforts to achieve continental complementarity and integration, including the acceleration of the implementation of the agreement on the African Continental Free Trade Area”.

He concluded his address by calling for support for initiatives aimed at the development of Africa, in particular infrastructure and industrial transition projects as part of the establishment of security and the achievement of expected development.