First Independent Mena Newspaper
By Rabia Elkotbi Despite the crisis that hit the tourism sector worldwide, Morocco has not shoved its projects in a drawer. On the contrary, Morocco is launching new projects and hunting for new investments to attract greater numbers of tourists, not only from Europe, its traditional market, but also from the Gulf and Asia, especially […]
Energy and Mining Minister Youcef Yousfi has said that the government will be dedicating more than $1,264 billion to its renewable energies program by 2030. The billion dollar investment is aimed at deriving more than 30% of the country’s energy consumption from renewable energies and to overcome the power outages which occur mostly during summer. […]
The Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) and the Tunisian government have signed a loan agreement of $88 million. The loan will help develop a transmission and distribution network of natural gas produced locally. Minister of Development and International Cooperation Lamin Al-Dughry signed the loan agreement while the Chairman of the Tunisian Company of […]
State-owned Sonatrach and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation have finally started production at the El Merk oil complex located in the Sahara desert of Algerian territory. The beginning of production at the $4,5 billion is a sign of relieve for the country’s hydrocarbon sector which was marred by a brutal hostage scenario at the beginning of the […]
Japan will build Turkey’s second nuclear power plant to be located in the Sinop province, northern Turkey, on the Black Sea. The contract worth $22 billion was signed last week in Ankara by the two countries’ Prime Ministers Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Shinzo Abe. The plant to have four reactors with a combined capacity of […]
Back in 2012, Issad Rebrab was listed as a potential candidate to Algeria’s presidential elections initially scheduled for April 2014 and press reports had then said that the man had already set up a campaign team made up of former cabinet members, businessmen and media figures. Last week, after President Abdelaziz Bouteflika suffered a stroke […]
Empirical studies show that the international monetary system is already tripolar. The Chinese currency, the renmimbi, has increasingly become a reference currency, as one which exhibits a high degree of co-movements with other currencies. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the renmimbi has accelerated its standing as the East-Asia exchange rate reference currency […]
The health of Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika who suffered a stroke and was flown to Paris on Saturday for further medical check-ups has raised speculations as to the political future of the country which seems in limbo. The health condition of President Bouteflika who was expected to run for the presidential elections scheduled in about […]
North and West Africa are facing a complex set of challenges in terms of democratic transition and consolidation, a growing prominence of Islamist influence, and potential knock-on effects of recent socio-political transformations. Adding to this complexity is Africa’s raising geopolitical importance that is evident in the growing interest of other extra-territorial powers, such as China, […]
Ever since the Syrian uprising began, the West has quietly been rooting for the opposition. And while the opposition has made some progress in chipping territory away from regime control, the conflict is far from over. Having passed the two-year anniversary, the conflict is now putting the West in a difficult dilemma. After years of […]