The Ambassador of Algeria’s, H. E. Noureddine Yazid‘s Speech
On the Occasion of Dinner Hosted in His Honour By Lady Olga Maitland, ABBC. London, 15th May, 2024

It is a great privilege and an honour for me to be at this gathering today. I would like to start by extending my sincere wishes of thanks to Lady Olga Maitland for organizing this wonderful and lovely dinner, and to pay a tribute to her continuous dedication, her commitment, and her devotion to reinforcing the Algerian British relations at the helm of the Algerian-British Business Council.
We both share the common desire to spare no efforts to actively undertake any action towards the achievement of this goal.

I am delighted at the quality of our relations, and the absence of any contention between our two countries, which allows us to aim for a great ambition in strengthening our exchanges and our
cooperation.

I would also like to express to you how much I appreciate the interest you show in my country through your personal and active involvement in promoting Algeria, and to congratulate you on this occasion on the latest compelling tourism article you wrote on the places you have visited during your recent trip to my country.

I wish to seize this opportunity today, to reiterate the interest that the Government of Algeria upholds, under the leadership of Mr Abdelmadjib Tebboune, President of the Republic, to the development of a successful and mutually beneficial partnership between Algeria and the United Kingdom.

In this context, we have jointly demonstrated in the last years, that this strategic objective is within our reach. We have indeed achieved higher levels of cooperation in major fields that make up a substantial part of our bilateral relations, particularly in the political, security, cultural and economic areas.

The volume of our bilateral trade has known significant raise reaching more than 2.5 billion pounds and a considerable interest is shown from both sides for more business interaction in many
domains.

From our perspective, we strongly believe in the prosperous future that leaps ahead of us and will spare no efforts in implementing the agreed roadmap.

It is within this scope that falls the resumption of the AlgerianBritish Strategic Dialogue, which held its second session in London, last November, paving the way to a significantrevitalisation of cooperation between our two countries.

On another note, Algeria today enjoys enviable political stability, despite a fragile and troubled regional environment. On the economic front, my country has made very positive progress according to the latest IMF and World Bank reports, which confirm the soundness of the macro-economic framework, controlled inflation, appreciable and sustained growth (4.2% in 2023), and a resilient and prosperous economy, in spite of some internal challenges and external shocks.

These encouraging results confirm the resilience and dynamism of the Algerian economy, which now ranks 3rd in terms of GDP ($270 billion) among the largest economies in Africa.

But at the same time, we are aware of the need to pursue reform efforts to move away from the prevalence of hydrocarbons. This is why Algeria is resolutely focused on diversifying its economy, with foreign direct investment playing a key role. This model is based on the creation of wealth, where business is the keystone.

In this framework, Algeria has undertaken economic and political reforms to free up the national market and create the conditions for the emergence of a modern and competitive national production and industrial foundation, by improving the business environment and promoting national production.

For several months now, Algeria has been engaged in a thorough process of remodelling the legal framework by introducing the new investment code pursuant to Act 22-18 on investment, which reflects all the aspects that reassure investors in terms of freedom in the act of investing and regulation stability to allow greater visibility for project developers. This bill is designed to:
– Reduce the tax burden;
– Improve access to finance and property;
– Modernise the administration and make all procedures more flexible;
– Promote the competitiveness of Algerian and foreign companies operating in Algeria.

The implementation of a digital platform dedicated to investors will undoubtedly bring transparency, equality and fairness to the processing of investment applications, as well as efficiency and, above all, trust.

In substance the new competitive business climate provides an investment-friendly environment, in addition, Algeria offers an attractive and excellent infrastructure to investors, thanks to its comparative advantages in terms of energy and raw materials, its extensive modern electricity and natural gas networks, road networks etc… This is the result of its proactive policy in education, health, infrastructure and water supply. This has enabled it to achieve a very advanced position in accordance with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2015-2030) ranking it as a leader in Africa and in the Arab world in the Human Development Index.

In conclusion, I would like to assure the British-Business Community of my availability and that of the Embassy staff to accompany and support them in their endeavours.

Thank you for your kind attention.

The Ambassador of Algeria H. E. Noureddine Yazid