Considerable increase in Indo-Algerian trade during 2001-07

Kolkata, May 16 (UNI) Indo-Algerian bilateral trade has increased considerably in the present decade and the figure ranged from 55 million US dollars in 2001 to 1400 million US dollars in 2007, Ambassador of Algeria in India Dr Noureddine Bardad Daidj said here today.

Interacting with the members of the Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI), Dr Daidj said in 2007 India's import accounted for 958 million US dollars while export was about 442 million US dollars.

Dr Daidj said trade balance during the period remained in favour of Algeria while foreign exchange reserves of Algeria reached 110 billion US dollars.

He said prospects for Indian investments in Algeria were good particularly in the secrtors of hydrocarbon, infrastructure, IT and pharmaceuticals.

Power, food processing, textiles, leather and mining were the other fields where Algeria wanted investments, Dr Daidj said adding in remote sensing India figured among the few selected countries with which his country was seeking cooperation.

He informed that in oil and gas sector, the bilateral cooperation has reached a new feat as ONGC expressed interest in working jointly with Sonatrach-the national oil company of Algeria and two memoranda of understanding were already signed in this regard.

'' French and Arabic being business languages of Algeria, there exists a language barrier and proper steps need to be taken to minimise this for the benefit of all parties,'' Dr Daidj maintained.

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