Algeria News
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BOTSWANA, 2016/01/13
The Africa Union has merged its science and education bodies in a move designed to improve sectoral relationships, effectiveness and efficiency. The African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology and the Conference of Ministers of Education of the African Union will presently operate as one entity.
“The decision of the heads of states was as well motivated by the need to streamline ministerial conferences, limit their number and confer the power to convene them to the African Union Commission and save costs,” Dr Mahama Ouedraogo, the African Union’s chief of human resources, science and technology, told University World News.
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EGYPT, 2016/01/12
Five North African nations – Algeria, Egypt, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia – along with 38 European and Mediterranean states stand to benefit from a new initiative to set up an ‘energy university’ that will provide free, specialised education for energy professionals via an online platform.
Senior officials of the 43 member states of the Union for the Mediterranean, or UfM, endorsed the new university during a conference in Barcelona, Spain, that was held next a high-level UfM conference entitled “Towards a Common Development Schedule for the Mediterranean” on 26 November.
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ALGIERS, 2016/01/11
Partnerships between Algerian economic operators and their counterparts from forty African nations will be the focus of a conference the Business Leaders Forum (FCE) intends to hold in October 2016, a representative of the organization announced Wednesday.
"Algeria has excellent diplomatic and political relations with African nations, but in economy, these relationships have not capitalized. The conference under the FCE will include dozens of business leaders in these nations with their counterparts Algeria to boost our economic relations and launch significant partnerships," President of the International Relations Committee in the FCE told APS.
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ALGERIA, 2016/01/05
Finally, the International media has begun to pay attention to the volatile political and security situation in Algeria. In its December 23 edition, the influential American daily the New York Times published an article “doubting that the ailing President Abdelaziz Bouteflika” is running his country.
As French news outlets keep avoiding this subject, it is presently up to the Moroccan and American media to highlight the dangers of a potential collapse of the Algerian national on oil prices, war on terrorism and stability in North Africa, Southern Europe and the Sahel.
Citing the jailing of three generals, inclunding General Hassan, the deputy chief of the intelligence service responsible for counterterrorism, and the dismissal of several dozen officers since the summer, the New York Times states that “the power struggle within the closed circle that has ruled Algeria for decades has spilled into the open in recent weeks, with accusations of a soft coup, as questions intensify about the health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.”
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AFGHANISTAN, 2016/01/02
World economic increase will be disappointing next year and the outlook for the medium-term has as well deteriorated, the chief of the International Monetary Fund said in a guest article for German newspaper Handelsblatt published on Wednesday.
IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the prospect of rising interest rates in the United States and an economic slowdown in China were contributing to uncertainty and a higher risk of economic vulnerability worldwide.
Added to that, increase in world trade has slowed considerably and a decline in raw material prices is posing problems for economies based on these, while the financial sector in a lot of nations still has weaknesses and financial risks are rising in emerging markets, she said.
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ALGIERS, 2016/01/02
Tens of thousands gathered in an Algerian village Friday for the burial of Hocine Ait-Ahmed, one of the fathers of the country's struggle for independence and a key opposition figure.
Ait-Ahmed died last week in Switzerland aged 89. His remains arrived Thursday in Algiers for a national funeral before being transferred to his home village, which bears his name.
Ait-Ahmed was the last of the nine so-called "sons of Toussaint" who launched an uprising against French policy on November 1, 1954.
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ALGIERS, 2015/12/27
After the relatively late launch of 3G services in 2013, Algeria is presently looking to accelerate its rollout of 4G LTE, with a successful speed test conducted before this year and a series of base stations being constructed across the country.
The new minister for the post office and ICT, Houda Imane Feraoun, confirmed to local media in late August that the government hopes to see mobile 4G launched in the coming months, with the final draft of the request for tender being evaluated by the sector regulator, the Regulatory Authority for Telecommunications and Postal Services, and a call for tenders expected early next year.
“Algeria has succeeded in improving its internet network to a significant degree, despite its late entry and lack of a clear ICT strategy,” she told media in late July, emphasising the crucial role played by the deployment of fibre-optic cables throughout the country, which has helped to modernise ICT infrastructure.
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ALGERIA, 2015/12/26
A drive to attract foreign investment in Algeria’s pharmaceuticals industry, part of a wider bid to diversify the economy and become a major exporter of pharma products, looks to be yielding results.
As the second-major pharmaceutical market on the continent next South Africa, with annual sales of $3bn, hydrocarbons-rich Algeria is a particularly attractive to international drugs companies.
Comparative advantages
Request for medication is growing at double-digit rates, driven by a range of different factors.
One of the biggest contributors to rising sales is 39.5m-person Algeria’s changing demographics, which are characterised by rising numbers of adolescents and the elderly as a proportion of the total people, according to the UN. Algeria’s age dependency ratio, which measures those under the age of 15 or over the age of 64 as a % of the working-age people, stood at 52% last year, as per World Bank figures.
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CYPRUS, 2015/11/21
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EUROPEAN UNION, 2015/11/21
The Maghreb Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade (Bcmice) will be operational by the end of December in Tunis, Rabat Kouider Lahoila, expert of the direction of economic affairs at the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU), has announced. He stressed that UMA taking a concrete step in the financial sector signified evolution for it.
This is good news for Maghreb states, businessmen and entrepreneurs who will thus gain access to a new funding source for their activities. The new bank, with a capital of 500 million dollars, will have as a fundamental mission to finance projects promoting common infrastructures for the five UMA member states - Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania - develop commercial exchanges within the Maghreb area, considering the strong potential of a market of 90 million consumers.
