Algeria Investment Climate Assessment

This investment climate assessment is
part of a series of analytical works on prepared by the
World Bank with the aim of laying out the basis for the
elaboration of the Bank's country assistance strategy
for the country. It is based on three pieces of work
undertaken in parallel in Algeria between January 2002 and
march 2003: an investment climate survey of 562 Algerian
firms, policy work resulting from a series of four missions
to Algeria; and a foreign investors survey of 57 European
investors from France, Italy and Spain. The report is
organized as follows: chapter I gives a general background
of the main macroeconomic issues in Algeria, recent
developments, and a brief description of the enterprise
sector. Chapter II presents the main findings of the ICA
survey, with a particular focus on differences among types
of firms (size, ownership, sector and age). It also
estimates the effect of the investment climate on
productivity and wages. Summaries of the main institutional
issues and policy recommendations complement the
quantitative assessments of the constraints. In each area,
international comparisons are presented, based on similar
surveys in other countries or other sources. It also
includes a summary of the findings of the potential foreign
investors survey. Chapter III builds on the survey
evidence to identify the priority institutional reforms
needed to improve the investment climate in Algeria. As a
result, a short to medium term strategy for private sector
development is proposed, which includes a detailed set of
reform actions.