Saudi Arabia Is Pumping $ 10 billion Of Investments In Algeria

Head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Saudi capital Riyadh promised, on Monday, to invest a huge sum equivalent to 10 billion dollars in Algeria by the beginning of 2017, a figure that will be unveiled today during a visit of the Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal to the kingdom, Deputy Chairman of the Saudi-Algerian Joint Business Council, Mourad El Ouadeh, told Echorouk.

“Sellal will meet with senior political officials in Saudi Arabia, while the Chairman of the Saudi Chamber met with both the Chairman of the Forum of Heads of Institutions (FCE) Ali Haddad and the Head of the Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Eid Bin Ameur, where negotiations about importing Algerian vegetables by Riyadh soon, including potatoes, tomatoes, and even dates, were opened”.

“First delegation of businessmen, who visited on Monday the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which includes 23 businessman and investors, began negotiations and meetings with the Saudi Arabia Chamber for Trade and Industry, where they revealed on investments equivalent to $ 10 billion that will be pumped from Saudi Arabia to Algeria by the beginning of the next few months”.

“Most important sectors which Saudis have expressed interest in Algeria are the pharmacy, the pharmaceutical industry, renewable energy, solar energy, agriculture, milk and cattle breeding, and equipment and maintenance, as they received a comprehensive report on the reality of investment and industry in Algeria, waiting for the arrival of the second delegation of Algerian officials, which will include the Prime Minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, and other ministers, knowing that the joint Business Council will continue for four days”.

During the first meeting, the Algerian investment environment file was open between the Algerian and Saudi sides, where the Saudis demanded the cancellation of the investment base 51-49, considering it as one of the most important obstacles that are stumbling the Saudi businessmen who are wishing to enter the Algerian market, at the time when the Algerian party, which was headed by Eid Ben Ameur and Ali Haddad, asserted that the government is not ready at the present time to delete this rule that was automatically transferred from the investment Law to the Finance Act, but that does not mean that it will be permanent, excluding its cancellation after 3 years, if the current economic conditions will change.

On the other hand, the Deputy Chairman of the Board, explained that the Saudis asked the Algerian businessmen to come to invest there, promising them to obtain privileges and major facilities, similar to enabling them to enter with a capital that is equivalent to 100%, that is without any Saudi or foreign partners, recalling that trade exchanges remain weak between the two countries, particularly with regard to the Algerian side, which did not export to Saudi Arabia last year, more than $ 3 million, compared with $ 320 million worth of goods and services of Saudi Arabia which entered the Algerian market.

Algerian-Saudi Business Council comes to pave the way for a golden economic relationship between Saudi Arabia and Algeria, after the confusion in the oil market in the past two years, that was led by the Gulf “cartel”, which led to the lowest prices of oil.