Chinese Investment in Algeria Totals $1.5 bn

The Chinese Ambassador to Algeria has told the press service APS, that up until the end of 2012, Chinese investments in Algeria totalled US$1.5 billion (€1.1 billion) over the past decade. More than 30,000 Chinese are working in Algeria in sectors including construction, road and rail infrastructures, for fifty major Chinese companies, he said.

Ambassador Liu Yuhe was speaking to the daily newspaper Liberté at a planting ceremony at the weekend. He said that the development of Chinese activity in Algeria was a reflection of excellent Algerian-Chinese cooperation. China has rapidly increased its investment in Africa over recent years, and Beijing estimates that over one million Chinese workers are employed on the continent in total. Algeria is high amongst the African markets for Chinese businesses.

Algeria’s National Railway Operator, Société Nationale des Transports Ferroviaires (SNTF), has a monopoly over the day to day operations of rail services, while another organisation ANESRIF handles inward investment in expansion and modernisation of railways under the supervision of the Ministry of Transport.

On 24 May 2010, The government approved a $286 billion five-year public investment plan that aims to boost infrastructure as well as to diversify the country’s economy away from oil dependency.