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afrol News, 6 January - The Algerian government on Friday signed an agreement to receive a loan of 120.313 million dollars to fund the upgrading of its telecommunications sector. The government aims to liberalise the entire telecommunications sector through the establishment of new structures and the involvement of new private operators. The African Development Bank (ADB) in a press release announced it had singed the credit agreement with Algerian government representatives at its headquarters in Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire) on Friday. Algerian Ambassador to Cote d’Ivoire, Salah Lebdioui signed for his country. The credit is to partly finance an Algerian government reform and investment policy for the 2000-2005 period, with the aims of liberalising the telecommunications sector. The government's objective is to increase the contribution of telecommunications and information technologies to the country's gross fixed capital formation (GFCF) from 1.16 percent in 1999 to at least 5 percent by 2005. According to the ADB, the reform programme specifically sought to "qualitatively and quantitatively increase telephone density from 5.95 lines per one hundred inhabitants in 2001 to 10 lines per one hundred inhabitants by 2005." The project was also to involve the operating capacities building of the Posts and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (ARPT) to "ensure it rapidly becomes autonomous and efficient and the technical upgrading of the national telecommunications network in order to meet demand in terms of interconnection capacity and subscriber connections," ADB quoted Algerian government policies. Further, the project was designed to contribute to the dissemination of new information technologies that have an increasing number of relevant applications to education (distance training/distance education), and health (telemedicine) in Algeria. Support to the ARPT would also "contribute significantly to the establishment of a competitive environment, which will attract private investments required for the upgrading of the telecommunications network with all the ensuing economic and social benefits," the communiqué holds. In order to "minimize the social cost of the project," the Algerian government had prepared a mechanism for the restructure of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications involving a voluntary redundancy scheme for applicants for early retirement as well as training programmes to upgrade the remaining staff. The ADB has been involved in Algeria since 1971. Mr Ogunjobi said the Bank has earmarked between US$ 250 million and 500 million for the funding of projects in Algeria for the 2002-2004 period, noting that the country, which is among the highest share holders and the biggest borrowers, "remains a privileged partner of the premier continental finance institutions."
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