Algerian president discusses energy policy

Algerian
president discusses energy policy
…………………………………………………………………

BY LIA UNRAU
Rice News Staff

Abdelaziz Bouteflika,
president of the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria,
told a Rice University audience that Algeria, the third-largest
gas-exporting country in the world, wishes to encourage
increased trade and new foreign investments.

To that end,
the government has crafted a new energy and mining policy,
lifting monopolies and establishing market rules ensuring
equity and transparency for national and foreign interests.

The Nov. 2 event
was hosted by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public
Policy of Rice University.

James A. Baker
III, former secretary of state and honorary chair of the
Baker Institute, introduced Bouteflika to the audience as
a “critical player in the world energy market.”

Speaking through an interpreter, Bouteflika outlined the
Algerian New Energy Policy, saying its core is a radical
change of the state’s role.

It is the state’s
role, he said, to “define the economic policy, assure
the means of regulating national monopolies and monitor
the balance of fundamental indicators, while imposing to
economic operators the respect for the rules of the game.”

He said that
new transparent and easy-to-execute contracts will be set
for exploration and production of hydrocarbons and ores,
with the goal of guaranteeing the upstream and downstream
force competitions of the sector, while banning any de facto
monopoly.

“The aim
is to gather the necessary conditions for the good functioning
of an open and competitive market economy,” he said.

Under the new
policy, state-owned companies will be merged in a transparent
legal framework, and experts and imports of crude oil and
refined products will be liberalized.

Bouteflika said
the changes will take shape through the transformation of
the role of state-owned companies that are solely involved
in trade activities and a definition of the role of new
state institutions as agencies.

Bouteflika also
reviewed Algeria’s new economic and national revitalization
policy, which enables large investment opportunities for
foreign parties. He detailed how Algeria has reduced foreign
debt, stabilized inflation and obtained a stable macroeconomic
framework.

“In regard
to the reforms that have been taken to go toward a market
economy and to go from a monolithic society to a pluralist
and democratic society — if you doubt it, it should
be clear that we don’t have a choice,” Bouteflika
said. “This is a challenge that we need to meet and
we are ready to do so.”

Bouteflika reminded
his audience that Algeria produces more than 1 million barrels
of oil per day and is preparing to reach 1.5 million in
2005. It also plans to double its gas capacities. He also
expressed satisfaction with trade relations with American
companies, particularly in the hydrocarbon sector.

“Partnership
was and remains an essential link in its approach,”
he said. “The Algerian New Energy Policy, thanks to
all its prospects for partnership, is a clear sign of our
determination to anticipate the change in order to be among
its prominent actors on the international oil and gas scene.”

Bouteflika’s
visit was part of the Baker Institute’s Shell Oil Co.
Foundation Lecture Series.