First Independent Mena Newspaper
Control Risks, the specialist risk consultancy, issued its 2017 RiskMap showing that Morocco continues to maintain its standing as the safest country for business and travel in North Africa. Morocco was the only country to be given a low security risk status in Riskmap, the leading guide to political and business risk and an important […]
The Algerian government released its 2030 vision for economic development, dubbed “New Growth Model,” warning of the unsustainability of the current subsidies system and urging economic diversification to reduce dependency on hydrocarbons. “In all sectors of the public service (electricity, gas, water, rail transport, telecommunications), tariffs are kept at levels lower than the cost of […]
Battered by the oil price slump, the underdeveloped banking sector in Algeria sees new financing sources in Islamic finance to tap into the huge informal economy and catch up with Morocco and Tunisia, which have already allowed such participatory banks to operate. As it edges towards offering banking services to suit more religiously conservative investors, […]
The Algeria-based separatist militia, the Polisario, has threatened to fire at the UN peacekeeping mission in the Sahara, MINURSO, if it patrols the demilitarized buffer strip as part of monitoring the 1991 cease-fire agreement. UN Spokesperson told the press in New York that the MINURSO should carry out its mission fully and enjoy unhindered freedom […]
After Angela Merkel and Hassan Rouhani, the Algerian leader has failed to meet up with French Premier Bernard Cazeneuve last Thursday though the French leader was scheduled to meet up with the ailing Algerian leader glued to a wheel-chair since 2013, reports say. The media and sources close to the Algerian presidency denied that President […]
Horst Kohler, former German President (2004-2010), is said to be named to succeed outgoing UN Secretary General’s Personal Envoy for the Sahara, Christopher Ross. Algerian news outlet, TSA, quoted diplomatic sources saying that Horst Köhler will most likely replace the US diplomat Christopher Ross, whose tenure has expired after eight years of mediation that left […]
The World Economic Forum issued the 2017 Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index placing Morocco on top of North African countries, third in the continent and 65th in the globe. Morocco came ahead of Tunisia (87th) and Egypt (74th) while Algeria (136th) took the very last position in the report, which offers an in-depth analysis of […]
South African paper, The Conversation, highlighted that Morocco managed to outmatch Algeria and South Africa diplomatically and economically in Africa thanks to a reinvigorated African diplomacy that culminated with a triumphal return to the African Union. “Morocco has been on a massive diplomatic drive, using both its political and economic muscle. Since his coronation in […]
The frail health of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is reflected in the Algerian diplomacy that has lost track as it continues to accumulate failures on multiple fronts. Algiers’s Arab diplomacy after its participation in the Arab league’s 28th Summit in Amman shows an inaudible voice and most of all an incapacity to forge new alliances in […]
The Algerian-backed Polisario militias have surprisingly announced their intention to withdraw from the Guerguarat buffer strip area in the southernmost tip of the Moroccan southern provinces in a move to polish its image ahead of the UN Secretary General report on the Sahara. The Algerian news agency reported that the Polisario separatist militias have announced […]