UNIDO Director General Visits Algeria to Expand Ties

UNIDO’s Director General Gerd Müller visited the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria to expand the cooperation between UNIDO and Algeria with a special focus on decarbonization, green hydrogen, circular economy, food security, entrepreneurship, skills development and South-South cooperation.

The Director General met with the President of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, at the Presidential Palace of El Mouradia in Algiers, and discussed ways to strengthen UNIDO-Algeria cooperation and to jointly contribute to advance industrial development in Africa.

Müller commended the reforms launched by the President through his national action plan 2020-2024, stressed Algeria's leading role in the energy sector and strategic importance for Africa: “Algeria is not only the largest country in Africa, but also one of its leading economies with great potential for sustainable industrialization, and an important partner for other African countries, Europe and the world. This is the beginning of a new quality of cooperation between UNIDO and Algeria. We will increase our efforts to support economic diversification, local value addition in strategic sectors and creating jobs for the large young population, as well as supporting regional trade integration via the African Continental Free Trade Area.”

The Director General also met with Ahmed Attaf, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who expressed his commitment to UNIDO's mandate and stressed that industrial development is vital to driving economic progress and job creation in Africa. Müller highlighted Algeria’s strategic role for the entire African continent in energy access and regional integration and stressed that UNIDO will increase its support to help the country realize its full potential as a role model for other African countries in terms of local processing. Müller and Attaf also discussed the need to mobilize more investments for sustainable industrial development in Africa. UNIDO is organizing in the fourth quarter of 2024 two high-level conferences dedicated to mobilizing such investments. The Director General invited the Minister to participate in these conferences, noting that Algeria can function as a bridge to other African countries for investments, technology and knowledge transfer.

A joint declaration signed between the Director General and Ali Aoun, Minister of Industry and Pharmaceutical Production underscored the commitment to expand the cooperation between UNIDO and Algeria.

Ali Aoun said: ”UNIDO interventions are very successful. We would like to expand our cooperation with the Organization and benefit from its experience and expertise to accelerate the sustainable industrial development”.

Director General Müller thanked the Minister for the ongoing successful cooperation and highlighted that the joint declaration gives a new dynamism to the cooperation: "We will initiate new projects in priority areas for Algeria including the decarbonization of heavily-emitting sectors such as cement and the modernization of infrastructure, vocational training, new technologies and the local pharmaceutical industry."

Energy was also an important topic of the Director General’s mission to Algeria. He was briefed by Mohamed Arkab, Minister of Energy and Mining, on Algeria’s plans to accelerate its energy transition and increase the share of renewable energy in its energy mix. UNIDO is already supporting the country’s efforts to become a key player in green hydrogen, and Müller and Arkab moreover discussed expanding UNIDO’s project portfolio to help Algeria increase local value addition of critical minerals for the global energy transition, and to work together via South-South cooperation to support energy access throughout Africa

Müller’s meeting with Fazia Dahlab, Minister of Environment and Renewable Energy, focused on expanding UNIDO’s existing project portfolio with concrete new projects in cleantech, circular economy, green hydrogen and for the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. Minister Dahlab commended the ongoing cooperation with UNIDO in particular for the implementation of the Montreal Protocol and the ECOVERTEC project, funded by the EU, which is introducing resource efficiency, cleaner production as well as new clean technologies to more than 250 industries in the country.

During his visit to Algeria Venture, the first state-owned start up for entrepreneurs and innovation, together with Yacine Oualid, Minister of Knowledge Economy, Start-ups and Micro-enterprises, Director General Müller agreed to boost cooperation and promote clean tech start-ups, AI, circular economy and innovation to create jobs for youth.

Müller also held a meeting with Toufik Bouras, Acting Director General of the Algerian Agency for International Cooperation in Solidarity (AACISD). Discussions centered on potential cooperation between UNIDO and AACISD to implement projects in African countries, particularly LDCs, with a focus on capacity building andvocational training, climate resilience and safeguarding the environment.