Algeria has
formally signed up to the International Trade Centre’s (ITC) Canadian-financed
Enhancement of Arab Trade Capacity (EnACT) programme at a ceremony in Algiers
attended by Trade Minister El Hachemi Djaaboub and ITC Executive Director
Patricia R. Francis.
The four-year
EnACT programme, linking Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia and Algeria,
is designed to boost trade both between the participating
countries and with other regions by reinforcing trade policy-making, trade
promotion and export competitiveness.
Ms Francis said at the signing
ceremony: “ITC’s credo is Export Impact for Good: creating opportunities for a
wider cross-section of the population through increased exports.”
The programme has four main thrusts:
improving trade intelligence, trade policy and export strategy; strengthening the
capacity of trade support institutions to promote export competitiveness;
developing markets and supporting small and medium-sized private sector
companies, particularly in the handicraft sector; and creating opportunities
for women and young people.
Ms Francis pledged: “We will support
trade support institutions doing a better job of helping exporters, by building
their capacities to develop business intelligence on new opportunities: what to
sell and where to sell, in the world as well as right here in the region.”
She said the programme would support
development of regional trade by creating and reinforcing networks of women and
young people in the five participating countries, and with the rest of Africa.
The Trade Minister Mr El Hachemi
Djaaboub stated that the EnACT programme “
will support the Algerian
operators in terms of enhancing the range of non-oil exports and strengthen the
instruments of intervention by trade support agencies with the mandate of
increasing Algerian exports, such as L’Agence
Algérienne de Promotion des
Exportations (ALGEX)”.
The
countries covered by EnACT all have young populations. They are endowed with
natural resources and have strong agricultural and industrial potential as well
as a relative proximity to markets in Europe, the oil-rich Gulf region and the
rest of Africa. Their own growing markets also have the potential to absorb products
and services originating in the region.
EnACT works with other donors and UN specialized
agencies to harness ITC’s successful experiences around the globe to strengthen
national export strategies, create further regional potential for trade, and enhance
regional integration through further activating existing trade cooperation
agreements, creating easier access for competitive products and services.
Click here to download the PDF version