An institutional twinning between Algeria and the European Union (EU) was launched Thursday in Algiers, to strengthen the operational capacity of the National Agency for the Promotion of Foreign Trade (Algex), as part of its contribution to the development of Algerian non-oil exports.
Funded by the EU as part of the Support Programme to the implementation of the Association Agreement (P3A II), this twining will be implemented by a consortium composed of the French Agency for International Development of companies (UBI France) and the Austrian Agency for Cooperation and economic development.
Over a period of two (2) years, the twinning project between Algex and French and Austrian counterparts should allow the reinforcement of the business intelligence device and an upgrading of economic information in companies, in addition to the consolidation of skills of Algex management staff in the field of foreign trade.
At the end of this project, we hope to see Algex equipped with all the technical and methodological means to enable it to rise to the level of similar organizations at the regional level, both in terms of the quality of services provided to businesses or their accompaniment at the international level," minister of Trade, Amara Benyounes stressed at the launching ceremony of the project.
This twinning project comes as the foreign trade of Algeria is characterized by a "contraction" of the balance of trade despite a positive surplus.
In this regard, he stated that the mono-export structure of the national economy and the structural weakness of non-oil exports significantly affect the external competitiveness of the Algerian economy.
Besides, he explained this twinning project was part of a clear strategy to develop and enhance the skills and performance of the agency in terms of support to exporters.
“We are a great country. Hence, we should not be afraid of opening up to global markets," assured Benyounes.