APS : Tuesday, 12 December 2017
ALGIERS- South Korea’s mobile phone manufacturer Samsung Electronics announced Monday, in Algiers, the opening of its first smartphone assembly plant in Algeria,
through its subsidiary Samsung Algeria and its distribution partner Timecom, with a production capacity of 1.5 million units a year.
“The new assembly plant is a major step in the strategic partnership between Samsung Algeria and Timecom, which is meant to contribute to the development of telecommunication and the digital industry in Algeria, while ensuring a wider technology transfer,” Ryad Attouchi, Samsung Algeria’s marketing manager, said on the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony.
Algeria’s unit is Samsung Electronics’ second assembly plant in partnership with a local investor outside South Korea, after the one based in Argentina, which shows South-Korean manufacturer’s big interest in the Algerian market.
“The project came in line with the economic reforms in Algeria and the government’s new development model, aimed to boost national production,” Samsung Algeria’s official said.
Samsung Algeria seeks to “provide Algerian consumers with a wide range of products meeting their expectations, both in terms of diversification and quality.”
Samsung products will be manufactured in Algeria “under the supervision of the mother company,” Attouchi noted.
The general manager of “Timecom,” Said Aissa Ahcene, told APS that the new plant, set up in the industrial area of Rouiba, Algiers, has been built with his company’s own funds.
The plant has an assembly and production line of 3,600 M2 and will be further extended from its second year.
Algeria’s Samsung plant has a storage space, a logistics area and many other facilities relating to mobile phone manufacturing technology.
The unit, which has a production capacity of 1.5 million smartphones a year, will create, in a first stage, 400 direct and hundreds of indirect jobs, Ahcene said.
It is planned to reach 2.5 million units from the second years, with an additional 250 direct jobs.
