Trade Minister Invites Arab Businessmen To Invest In Algeria

Trade Minister, Kamel Rezig, invites Arab businessmen to come and invest in Algeria, which is providing promising opportunities after removing all obstacles and difficulties, especially after the abolition of rule 49/51 of the investment law and restricting it only to specific sectors.

In an interview with the Saudi newspaper, Al-Riyadh, the minister affirmed that “The new Algeria invites them to come and invest after providing all the conditions and removing all obstacles”.

“Algeria has a strategic location and its African extension remains the safe gateway to the African market, especially after Algeria joins the African region for free exchange which will make it a great space for continental trade”.

“The Algerian – Saudi product or any other Algerian Arab product will have priority access to African markets. The trade sector is currently experiencing several economic challenges that aimed at intensifying the development programs that the President Abdelmadjid Tebboune committed to support and upgrade the national economy and consolidate a solid base for local development, and the development of new mechanisms in the trade sector based on rationalizing imports and intensifying and diversifying exports”.

“Algeria has several high-quality industrial products in addition to the agricultural products that precede the crops harvesting seasons and seeks to introduce and promote them in the global markets and develop trade exchanges with its partners”.

“Algeria aspires to open the door for investment, especially in the food and manufacturing industries and the rest of the non-strategic sectors available to the Arab and Saudi brothers without the rule 51/49, such as tourism, solar energy, papermaking, medical products, information services, agriculture, food processing industries, areas and major commercial interfaces”.

“Saudi investment in Algeria has taken an upward trend for years, but the value of Saudi investments in Algeria remains no more than 1.5 billion dollars in sectors such as tourism, housing, health, petrochemistry, medicine and food, which do not reflect the capabilities of partnership and cooperation between the two countries”.

Regarding the Saudi Almarai company’s project in Algeria, the minister said that the reinvigoration of the investment project in Algeria is based on a purely economic conviction under the “Winner- Winner” principle for both parties on the premise that direct investment of the company “Almarai”, especially in the milk material, will reduce the bill of importing the basic material for the Algerian citizen, not to mention the job positions that will be provided by direct investment, in return, the Saudi side will find a local market with 45 million consumers and an African market with a total of 1.2 billion consumers and entering the European market as well.

Regarding the export operations towards the Arab countries, Rezig said that they are still modest and do not reflect the true capabilities of the country, especially in the field of vegetables and fruits, where the sector is currently working to support and frame the initiatives of exporters and accompany them to upgrade exports.

On joining the Arab Free Trade Zone and the World Trade Organization, the minister said that Algeria is working to evaluate all the agreements programmed with it, by installing several committees from the sector frames, Algerian professors and researchers, and professionals to evaluate these agreements and give reports to the government that will decide what to do.