President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has decided to vigorously lead the creation of free zones between Algeria, Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya, Mali and Niger. A week after the official announcement Tebboune chaired a working meeting on Tuesday, February 20, 2024. But for the moment Algiers will be content with the free zone between Tindouf and Mauritania, an issue that Algiers has been discussing since July 2023. Why are economic exchanges with this neighboring country an absolute priority for Algeria? For very good reasons…
The huge gas and mining pie
Indeed, Mauritania will go from a growth of 5.1% in 2024 to 14.3% next year, the best rate on the African continent according to the latest forecasts from the IMF (International Monetary Fund). To what does Nouakchott owe this phenomenal jump? A large gas deposit was discovered on the maritime border with Senegal which the two countries share equally. Above all, there is the Bir Allah deposit whose reserves are estimated at 80,000 billion cubic feet, and this time Mauritania will not share with anyone.
So a country that will have all these financial resources without mentioning the subsoil brimming with mineral wealth which has hardly been touched, a country of 1,030,700 km² which lacks everything and where everything has to be done, obviously the Algerian brother can’t let this slip away. The Algerian head of state is right to emphasize the need to boost investments and trade between the two nations to take advantage of the countless opportunities.
During the working meeting, the finger was placed on the enormous potential of this file in terms of job creation, economic development, and factors for boosting the national GDP. And Algeria, which has moved towards a proactive non-hydrocarbon export policy, has a good card to play. The government has committed to support initiatives aimed at Mauritania and other countries in the region, particularly SMEs, said the press release from the Presidency of the Republic.
Algiers shot first but Rabat hit a big blow
Remember that from March 2022 Algeria embarked on the creation of a maritime line with Mauritania. So there are solid milestones already laid. Except that Algiers is not alone in this, there is also Morocco. The kingdom is eyeing the endless possibilities that Mauritania will offer. As recently as January 22, the head of Mauritanian diplomacy, Mohamed Salem Ould Marzouk, was in Rabat, received with great fanfare by his Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita. And the latter declared this: Mauritania is “an essential part of the royal Atlantic initiative (…). Relations are progressing positively, and today Morocco’s desire and ambition is for these relations to continue on this trajectory with a strong imprint,” insisted the Moroccan minister…
Morocco is Mauritania’s first partner in Africa, and we have the ambition to promote this cooperation in the future (…). Morocco does not have a partnership as strong as that with Mauritania.” And right now a delegation from the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) is in Nouakchott on a business mission. “This mission aims to promote economic and commercial relations between Morocco and Mauritania, particularly in the sectors of agriculture, agri-food, fishing, renewable energies, tourism, industry and trade. », indicated the CGEM in its press release.
All this to say that Morocco also has the firm intention of competing for the first place to have its share in this pie that is Mauritania. All this promises great fights with the enemy brother, Algeria. Fierce competition will ultimately benefit businesses in both countries because there will be room for everyone with all these projects…
