ALGIERS, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- As many as 5,057 investment projects worth a total of 17 billion U.S. dollars were approved in Algeria in 2017, said on Monday the National Agency for Government Investments Development (ANDI).
"Projects in the industrial sector represent 51 percent of the total projects with a total of 10 billion dollars, which would create some 103,000 job opportunities," Director of ANDI, Abdelkrim Mansouri was quoted as saying by APS news agency.
Mansouri further predicted that the majority of these projects would create more than 168,000 new job opportunities.
Mansouri noted that there were 116 joint venture projects with foreign operators worth 2 billion dollars, and they created 14,525 jobs.
Mansouri concluded that despite the continuing financial crisis, Algeria remains an attractive area for foreign investors.
Algeria is striving to curb upshots of the financial crisis hitting the nation due to the falling oil prices, hoping to diversify its oil dependent economy.
The government has already started limiting imports by imposing licenses on operators, in a bid to block the importation of what the government calls as "unnecessary goods," such as vehicles, building materials, luxury furniture and exotic fruits.
The government also plans to diversify the nation's economy by boosting engineering, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and food industries, by inking partnership projects with foreign investors.
