The Government Says $29 b Invested in 2011 First Half, Experts Sceptic

Prime Ministry has announced on Monday the investment of 28.8 billion USD during the first half of 2011, including 6.39 billion as direct foreign investments, with 63 foreign projects in the field of mines and energy and 50 local and partnership projects.

Yet, the PM’s statement has not specified whether the aforementioned investment projects have already been launched or yet to be launched. 

The pace of public and private investments during the first half of 2011, hit 160 million USD a day, according to the government’s economic and social outcome. Such an amount has permitted creating 1 million new jobs in the same period, by an average of 5556 jobs a day, in the domains of services, administration, agriculture, forest protection and petrochemical industry. 16.3 billion USD investments were granted by the state treasury, while 4.2 billion USD were supported by the National Investment Fund (FNI).

Local private investments hit 1.3 billion USD, the majority of which are financed by loans attributed by banks. 

However, Professor Abderrahmane Toumi, an economist, told Echorouk reporter that the government mixes between the projects included in the first 5 year plan, which have been delivered during the first half of 2011 and the real investments that the government achieved during the same period. 

Pr Toumi urged the government to respect experts and observers by giving accurate figures rather than random outcomes, adding that nobody can believe the aforementioned figures, simply because the national capacities are still low, the banking system is weak and the local industry and services are modest.

The government should adopt more transparency to help experts detecting strong and weak points in the national economy, in order to be given accurate recommendations and constructive critics, Pr Toumi concluded.