Algeria’s development strategy, implemented during the last fifteen years, allowed the country “significantly” meet the population’s accumulated and renewed expectations, said Algeria’s 2000-2015 report on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Adopted in a context marked by an improved security situation thanks to the national reconciliation policy launched by President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the development strategy implemented during the last fifteen years “allowed the country to significantly meet the population’s accumulated and renewed expectations,” stressed the report released on the occasion of the anniversary of the Algerian Diplomacy Day and the United Nations Day.
In the chapter on the evolution of the socioeconomic situation in 2000-2015, the report affirmed that the Algerian strategy, “based on an unprecedented investment effort, i.e. nearly 30% of the GDP per year, resulted in the implementation of four major development plans aiming at supporting economic recovery, boosting growth, modernizing economic and social infrastructures and backing development of the High Plateaus region and the South.”
“The economic and financial performance between 2000 and 2015 reflects the relevance of this strategy,” the document noted.
According to the report, the financial upturn achieved through the increase in oil prices “strengthened public authorities’ commitment to taking political decision that resulted a genuine impetus, like advance repayment of foreign debt, the consolidation of financial capacities both in terms of foreign currency reserves and public funding capacities. Actually, these factors helped preserve balanced budgets for the implementation of socioeconomic development programs throughout this period.”
At the economic level, the report indicated that the “annual growth increased by 3.7% and non-oil GDP grew by 6%, with a peak of nearly 10% in 2009.”
The document also said that this growth is “globally diversified, as all non-hydrocarbon sectors have observed a significant variation in their added value, a moderate inflation rate (3.9% annually), and intensive jobs; unemployment has fallen sharply (from 29.8% in 2000 to 11.2% in 2015).”
After recording a 3.8% growth rate between 1999 and 2005, thanks to high prices, the Hydrocarbon sector “faced fall in world demand since 2006.”
The hydrocarbon sector has thus recorded “negative growth” over the period 2005-2014.
Its share in the GDP has therefore decreased from over 45% in 2006 down to 27.1% in 2014, said the report which affirmed that this sector “remains the primary source of revenues to the economy, which constitutes a factor of vulnerability because of price volatility.”
Regarding the construction sector, the report notes that its performance is particularly linked to major investment programs launched in housing and public works.
Over the last 15 years, up to “3 million families got access to new houses, fully or partially funded by the State, which increased the housing stock from 5.4 million in 2000 to 8.5 million in 2015.”
Regarding the public works, the report cited the three Leading Plans by 2025 on Roads, Highways, Airports and Maritime Facilities.
It chiefly mentioned the construction of 1,142 km East-West Highway and the improvement of the railway network which increased, between 2000 and 2013 from 1,739 km to nearly 4,000 km.
Concerning the agriculture sector, the report highlighted the policy of agricultural reform, which allowed the extension of arable soils, the redevelopment of farms and large areas reforestation.
The policy has also allowed the modernization of farming tools, the stabilization of the rural populations through the creation of jobs, the document said.
The report on the MDGs said that the private sector contribution to the wealth and employment creation in Algeria is “increasingly important,” representing 59.5% of the national value added in 2014, against 41.7% in 2000.”
Outside hydrocarbons, the share hit nearly 86% in 2014, against 74.8% in 2000 and the private sector contributes in 59% of job creation overall.
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Credit: All Africa
