Over 500 investors expected at Congress of the Arab Businessmen Union in Algiers

[Al-khiyal]

Over 500 investors are expected to attend the tenth Congress of the Arab Businessmen Union, which will be held in Algiers on November 18th-19th. Omar Ramdane, president of the union, said this year's forum will carry the theme "Algeria, Cross-point of Arab Investments" and aim at clarifying opportunities for investments in Algeria as new investment promotion regulations have been implemented. He pointed to the country's successful economic agenda in the past years.

Algeria has attracted Arab investors such as ORASCOM, the Egyptian Telecommunication Company, Wataniya, the Arab Gulf Bank, Kuwaiti telecommunications and banking firms, Dar Al Dawa, a Jordanian pharmaceutical company. Ramdane stressed the volume of total Arab non-oil investments in Algeria reached $5.7 billion in the period 2000-2006.

Over 500 investors expected at Congress of the Arab Businessmen Union in Algiers

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, Nov 18 (KUNA) -- The 10th Arab Businessmen Conference kicked off here Saturday with a long agenda dealing in part with investment prospects in tourism, finance and industry.

The opening ceremony was attended by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Speaker of Parliament Abdelqader bin Saleh, Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, and the ministers of energy, finance, tourism, industry, health, and commerce.

The conference is held with the participation of 700 businessmen, 350 of them represent 15 Arab countries and 27 of them represent Kuwait.

The conference is expected to focus on investment opportunities in several sectors, including tourism, banking, insurance, agriculture, media and communication technologies.

A number of workshops and discussion forums will also be held to touch on the experiences of Arab businessmen investing in Algeria.

The second day of the conference will touch on investment opportunities in Arab countries, where participants will discuss investments in public works, housing, real-estate, transportation, health, and commerce.

Algerian official sources said there are more than 227 possible investment projects in Algeria, 174 of them are direct investment projects, while 53 projects require partnership with private and public Algerian institutes.

Arab Businessmen Conference kicks off in Algeria

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS: Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem said yesterday that Algerian markets offer Arab investors promising investment opportunities.

On the sidelines of the 10th Arab Businessmen Conference, Belkhadem told Kuna that Algeria is considered an African gateway, noting that Algeria has a strategic partnership agreement with the European Union that grants Algerian manufactured products a customs-free access to 25 European countries.

He encouraged Arab investors to benefit from such opportunities and double their activities and investments in the Algerian market to catch-up with Arab investors and companies that accomplished successful projects valued at billions of dollars.

Belkhadem added that Algeria has a tempting geographic and financial situation in addition to laws and facilitations that promote Arab investments, noting that the Algerian government in July approved amendments to investment laws that offer more facilitation to Arab and foreign investors.....

Algeria offers Arabs promising investments

[Al-khiyal]

Algiers: North African oil exporter Algeria urged Arab firms yesterday to step up investment in the former French colony, where Arab and Asian companies are challenging the traditional economic dominance of Europeans.

Inaugurating a conference of Arab businessmen, President Abdelzaziz Bouteflika painted the Mediterranean country's need for Arab economic engagement in terms of national survival.

"We need Arab backing and help more than when they gave us support during our revolution," he said, referring to support for Algeria's independence war against France in 1954-62.

"We call on Arab investors to come up with feasible and serious projects and we commit ourselves to facilitating their entry into our market," Finance Minister Mourad Medelci told more than 200 businessmen from Egypt, the Levant and the Gulf.

The conference aims to deepen Arab interest in Africa's second largest country, which is trying to lessen reliance on oil and gas and is ploughing record energy revenues into an $80 billion programme of reconstruction and development.

Algerian business people say the country sorely needs more investment and exposure to international best practice in services. They say bureaucracy, graft, underdeveloped banking standards and state control of the economy have kept the non-energy sector feeble.

Algeria appeals to Arab firms to step up investment

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, Nov 20 (KUNA) -- Algeria witnessed an economic leap in the past few years aimed at attracting Arab and foreign investments, Arab businessmen noted on sidelines of the 10th Arab Businessmen Conference held on Saturday and Sunday.

Managing Director and the consultative engineer of the Kuwaiti Simex International Bader Abdelwahab Al-Najjar told KUNA the conference was an opportunity for Arab businessmen to familiarize with the Algerian market and its investment opportunities.

He said regular visits by Kuwaiti investors to Algeria are a positive indicator of the presence of Kuwaiti investments in Algeria such as the recent visit by the Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO) and the presence of the Kuwait Watani Telecom Company in Algeria.

Director of the Fuad Al-Ghanem and Sons Company Sami Moussa Farhan told KUNA that Algeria has a promising market and its facilities will attract the Arab and foreign businessmen.

UAE investor, Vice President and Managing Director of the Al-Salam Bank, Hussein Mohamed Salim Almeeza, said the bank will offer its services in Algeria next year and will expand its presence with 17 different agencies.

He noted that the bank will be able to invest USD 100 million.

Chairman of the Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ibrahim bin Jaber told KUNA Arab businessmen are ready to execute serious investment projects in the country and are encouraged by the high numbers recorded by the Algerian economy in the past five years.

Algeria's net national product doubled in the past five years to reach USD 105 billion and the percentage of development increased by five percent, he added.

The conference which concluded its activities last night was held with the participation of 700 businessmen, 350 of them represent 15 Arab countries and 27 of them represent Kuwait.

The conference focused on investment opportunities in several sectors, including tourism, banking, insurance, agriculture, media and communication technologies.

Earlier, Algerian official sources said there are more than 227 possible investment projects in Algeria, 174 of them are direct investment projects, while 53 projects require partnership with private and public Algerian institutes.

Algeria witnessing economic leap, attracts Arab investments

[Al-khiyal]

ALGIERS, Nov 20 (KUNA) -- Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem called on Monday for speeding up the specifying the certificate of origins' requirements for the Arab manufactured products, prior to calling off all inter-Arab custom tariffs and establishing a free trade zone.

Speaking to newsmen on sidelines of the 10th Arab Businessmen Gathering running here, he said that the precise classification of the certificate of origin is a prerequisite for encouraging inter-Arab trade and removing all restrictions on Arab trade exchange.

Along the same line he reminded of the customs gradual exemption procedure applicable to commodities and put in effect by some Arab states with the aim of establishing a free trade zone.

He said these exemptions, that are at times up to 70 percent, could end up in destabilizing the production balance in some Arab states that allow similar exemptions.

Concluding he urged the Arab states to encourage import of Palestinian products in order to face the siege imposed by Israel.

Establishing free trade exchange zone a must - Algerian PM