Investors accuse administrative bureaucracy of “killing” projects

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Investors accuse administrative bureaucracy of “killing” projects in Algeria

Participants in the National Conference on foreign trade held in Algiers, including investors and Government representatives, have agreed to assert that Algeria has significant assets allowing her to shore up the national industrial base and to diversify exports outside the hydrocarbon sector.

However, they argued that the creeping bureaucratic machinery holding sway in the country’s administrative departments has so far prevented Algeria from seizing the opportunity to secure a potent foothold on international markets notably in terms of increased export activities and profit-yielding investments abroad.

To this effect, the CEO of the Algerian “Cevital” Company, Mr Issad Rebrab who took the floor during this timely conference, affirmed that Algeria was seeking integration into the world economy and the development of its products at competitive prices through the full adhesion to the WTO, adding that this membership would enable the Government to shift from the status of importer to that of exporter for thousands of locally-manufactured products.

He further underscored that Algerian institutions were capable of ensuring that locally-made products would meet international standards in terms of pricing and quality, stressing that Algeria has comparative advantages but the latter need accompaniment from producing enterprises in order to face up successfully to the manifold red-tape hurdles obstacles ahead, citing for that matter, the standing logistical problems linked to the thorny port clearance activities.

Mr Rebrab also said the “Cevital” Complex was aware that Algeria possesses the necessary assets and the economic potentialities to pull gradually out of the hydrocarbons dependency and to get rid of the oil crisis, but the all-pervasive administrative bureaucracy precludes this projected endeavor, as he put it.

Organized by the Trade Ministry, the Algiers conference on external trade activities which brought together the public authorities, economic and social partners, experts and representatives of specialized international institutions, was meant to identify not only the actions to boost non-oil exports as well as measures to upgrade the exportable supply.

The stake was to find necessary tools to "revamp the public policies in a bid to reinforce national export performance,'' trade officials said.

Algeria "remains a marginal player in international trade," notes the same source, explaining that this is due to the low diversity in production and export structures, the strong dependence of the Algerian economy on oil and its low integration into global value chains.