H.E. Mr. Mohammed Belaoura:

I thank Deputy Carthy for his questions. I will touch on a few elements. With regard to co-operation between Ireland and Africa, Europe and Africa, and, in general, between Africa and other countries or regions, as I mentioned at the beginning, the African continent has great potential in both human capacities and in minerals and wealth. However, the African countries are facing many challenges. I have some figures. While the African continent contains 18% of the world population, Africa is still contributing to world GDP by less than 3%. The world GDP is $100 trillion yet GDP in Africa is less than $3 trillion. It is a huge problem. The contribution of African countries to global trade has gone from 2.2% in 2000 to 3.5%. Still we are far from a fair contribution to world trade or the world economy in general. The past experience for Africa's development has been that of facing many challenges.

The international contribution towards African development through public aid development falls short of meeting the objectives and needs of the African continent. One of the issues is the lack of a good understanding of African needs. Usually African needs, African economic and social programmes in their details, are not really focused on. There is a need for ownership by African countries of their connections or relations with the rest of the world. I know that many countries including Ireland are doing their utmost to help African countries through aid, trade and investment engagement. Still, there is something missing in the whole relations with Europe and India, for example. That is why we have some other issues coming out of these economic situations in Africa, namely migration. There is a huge number of immigrants coming from the continent to Europe looking for jobs and a better life. There is an issue regarding the economic and social conditions for these young people to be kept in their own countries.

I will give the Deputy another figure. There was a report from the UN Secretary General in the 1990s about conflicts in Africa and development. The UN was spending $1.2 billion for MINUSMA, the peacekeeping mission of the United Nations in Mali, one of the largest missions of the UN in Africa. There was instability there as we all know. If we asked the donor countries to continue spending this without having the mission, just to prevent any instability or conflict situation, to help this country in particular, just as an example, to build infrastructure, to invest this money, they would not agree. This is a big issue which brings me to one of the conclusions. African countries and Africa in general needs more trade, more co-operation relations than aid, which often does not really focus on African needs and does not solve the issue.

I will say a few words on relations between Algeria and Ireland. As I mentioned in my opening statement, Algeria-Ireland bilateral trade reached a peak in 2022 of €300 million. This of course is a modest amount compared with other partners of Ireland or of the whole of Ireland's external trade. Still, it is very important in our bilateral relations, which had been at about €160 million to €180 million a year for years. It means there is big potential for trade between our two countries, in particular since Algeria is now engaging in a huge effort of investment in infrastructure and mining industries. We are investing $6 billion in the next three years in phosphate in the eastern part of the country. It is a huge project which will bring production to approximately 9 million tonnes or so. We are also investing more than €5 billion in the western part of the country in steel and iron at Gâra Djebilet.

This will multiply our iron and steel production. I refer to the building of a deep water huge port in the northern central part of Algiers. This will be linked to an important network of roads, which are either already built or are in construction. We have around 42,000 km of larger roads, if we can call them that, and a railway network that will connect the north with the borders of Niger and Mali. This will also be of benefit to other counties such as Chad and Mauritania. Trade with African countries, European countries and the rest of world is good, but the investment dimension and ownership by African countries of their development process is of utmost importance.