ALGIERS – Wednesday, 27 December 2023 (APS) – The wise economic policy of the State, outlined by the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, in his speech before the two Houses of Parliament, has borne fruit, with the indicators of the Algerian economy in the green despite multiple global crises, through the encouragement of domestic production, the curbing of anarchic imports, the generalization of digitalization and the improvement of governance over the last four years, according to economists.
In his address to the Nation on Monday, the President of the Republic recalled that, in the past, investment methods used and abused public money, which altered the trust between the citizen and the State, and “national production was relegated to the benefit of imports and over-invoicing”. But, in recent years, the State has succeeded in “moralizing the economic and financial spheres.”
In this respect, economist El Houari Tigharsi noted that the State’s policy in recent years had succeeded in “turning the tide” by shifting from intensive imports to the promotion of local production and investment, with the encouragement of non-hydrocarbon exports.
Tigharsi cited, by way of example, the businessmen who, in recent years, have turned to investment in strategic fields such as sugar beet and oils, which were previously imported by Algeria at exorbitant prices.
The President of the Republic has been far-sighted in concentrating efforts on the issue of food security, encouraging the launch of investments aimed at achieving self-sufficiency in several products”, said the expert, underlining the importance of President Tebboune’s decision to abandon the export of mining products in their raw state, since, he said, “the export of processed products will bring in ten times more.”
Regarding the process of generalizing digitization, on which the President of the Republic focused in his speech, the expert affirmed that “important work” was underway in this field to obtain up-to-date and accurate economic data.
For his part, economist Mourad Kouachi stressed the importance of the policy put in place by the State to curb the anarchic imports that have burdened the public treasury and restricted national production, pointing out that the results of this policy were palpable, notably through the rise in foreign exchange reserves to over US$70 billion.
“The State has put in place a judicious import policy: import what we need without impacting the Treasury and the national economy, considering the needs of citizens to avoid shortages,” explained the speaker, noting that “no country in the world can do without imports.”
Indeed, the President of the Republic indicated in his speech that, to avoid foreign indebtedness, the State has decided to stop non-essential imports and replace them with national production, recalling in this respect the creation of the High Council for Import Regulation.
President Tebboune also recalled the “major flaws” recorded in the past, which aimed to “kill off national production in favor of anarchic imports, with invoices for imported goods being paid before containers were received, or even containers filled with stones and household waste.”
According to Kouachi, this period is now over because the Algerian economy has recorded significant development in recent years, as acknowledged by international institutions, with “green indicators in several sectors, notably pharmaceutical production and agriculture, which now make a significant contribution to GDP.”
Stressing the importance of the President’s guidelines concerning the local processing of mining raw materials before export, and the establishment of a strong manufacturing industry, the economist underlined that “the South is the future of the Algerian economy.”
As for digitization, he sees it as the cornerstone of any economic revival, believing that its generalization will enable us to know our capacities, evaluate the economy, identify shortcomings and implement appropriate solutions.
For his part, economist Mahfoud Kaoubi, underscored the importance of the “economic engineering” developed by the State in recent years to guarantee “national security,” noting that this engineering “is based on the transformation of the Algerian growth model, relying on the valorization of mining and energy resources and the investment of their revenues in areas of importance.”
The expert hailed “the real political will to achieve the digital transition, which will create a qualitative change in the management and governance process,” considering digitization to be one of the most important means of achieving the aims of economic transformation.