“Algerian International Cooperation Agency to launch first projects in Africa in a month,” President Tebboune says
BY: Hana Saada
ALGIERS- The President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, announced that the Algerian Agency for International Cooperation for Solidarity and Development “will launch, in one month, development projects in African countries, starting with Mali and Niger,” specifying that the activities of this agency would mainly focus on health, water, and education.
In his periodic interview with representatives of the national media coinciding with World Press Freedom Day, broadcast on Saturday evening, the President of the Republic indicated that he “appointed, a week ago, a new director of the agency, and in a month, the first construction sites will be launched in the city of Kidal in Mali, with the construction of a dispensary and a school, as well as the drilling of a well to ensure a supply of drinking water.”
The Algerian Agency for International Cooperation for Solidarity and Development has the mission of “helping to reduce poverty and fight against thirst and the lack of healthcare and water drainage infrastructure”, he said.
“The Agency, for which the State has allocated a financial envelope of one billion dollars, has also drawn up a program to materialize projects for the construction of a high school in Niger and the completion of the construction of a mosque, at the request of the local population,” further noted the President.
“Such projects will be an opportunity for Algerian doctors to deploy in Africa rather than heading to Europe,” he argued.
Created in 2020, the Agency’s mission is to participate in the development and implementation of the national policy for international cooperation in economic, social, humanitarian, cultural, religious, educational, scientific, and technical matters and to contribute to preparing the draft budget for international cooperation and ensuring its execution.
It is also responsible for supporting the action of the diplomatic apparatus and the ministries concerned for the optimal mobilization of external technical and financial assistance in the service of national development and for monitoring the technical management and financial support for international assistance and cooperation projects in favor of third-world countries.
The President of the Republic underlined that Algeria, which is striving to “return to the African bosom,” has “today regained its place on the continent,” noting that the objective of this agency is “development and fraternity” in Africa.
President Tebboune also affirmed the desire of Algeria, the continent’s third largest economy and second military power, to position itself in Africa, recalling the efforts made by the authorities in recent years to open a maritime line for the transport of goods with Nouakchott and another one to Dakar, then to the Ivory Coast.
In two to three months, the first Algerian bank will be opened in Dakar, Senegal, announced President Tebboune, who highlighted “the assets available to the Algerian economy to access the African market.”
