APS : Sunday, 09 February 2020
ADDIS ABABA – President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune announced on Sunday in Addis Ababa his decision of creating an “Algerian agency for international cooperation” destined to reinforce Algeria’s cooperation with African neighbouring countries, particularly in the Sahel region.
“I have decided on the creation of an Algerian Agency for international cooperation for solidarity and development (ALDEC), to serve exclusively in Africa,” declared President Tebboune during the opening ceremony of the 33rd African Union (AU) summit.
“This Agency’s primary mission is to “accomplish on field our desire to strengthen aid, assistance and solidarity with neighboring countries, in particular the brother countries in the Sahel”, he stressed.
According to the Head of State, “this Agency which will cover all fields of cooperation, will be endowed with the necessary tools to accomplish its missions and the achievement of concrete and useful projects.”
For this reason, he committed to “personally” follow the programmes of this new agency and endeavour to “appoint a skilled and experienced Chief Executive to realize a fraternal solidarity that lives up to our expectations.”
The creation of this agency is part of President Tebboune’s desire “to impart a new dynamic to international cooperation of Algeria, especially with brother countries in Africa and the Sahel”.
“Algeria cannot ignore brotherly and neighboring countries, even less the African continent of which it is an integral part and natural extension. We have in recent years obscured our Africanness. Although focused on our internal affairs, we are now determined to return to it, quickly and strongly, within the renewed framework of the African Union and through bilateral relations,” he affirmed.
The President of the Republic reiterated Algeria’s availability to “contribute strengthening regional integration and to the efforts which would allow our continent to address its issues on its own and regain in stature at the international level and take ownership of its economic development process in all its dimensions “.
He recalled, in this context, “the supreme interest accorded by Algeria to structuring projects,” citing in this regard, the Trans-Saharan Road, the Trans-Sahara Optical Fibre Backbone and the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (Nigeria-Algeria)
This interest, he continued, “is only proof of his desire to make regional integration a reality”. The Head of State praised, at the same time, “the important steps taken by our continent in the process of African integration, in particular in favor of the enforcement of the African Continental Free Trade Area and the further realization of projects aimed at regional integration and strengthening of infrastructure under the New Partnership for Africa’s Development initiative.”
