Turkey, Algeria sign trade agreements

ALGIERS

Turkey and Algeria have signed a number of agreements on the sidelines of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s two-day visit to the Maghreb country, with the Turkish leader pushing for higher trade goals.

Algeria’s state-owned energy company SONATRACH and Turkey’s Rönesans and Bayegan energy firms have agreed on a $1 billion investment in the petrochemical sector, Erdoğan said on Feb. 27 in Algiers, where he attended a Turkey-Algeria Business Forum.

The forum came one day after Erdoğan met with Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia in the city.

The investment will be made in the Adana Yumurtalık Free Zone, located in Turkey’s Mediterranean province of Adana.

Erdoğan said the plant at the economic zone would produce 450,000 tons of polypropylene per year and that the raw material will be provided by Algeria.

Polypropylene is a thermoplastic polymer, which is used in various sectors such as spare parts used in the automotive industry, packaging of textile and food.

Once the plant becomes operational, Turkey will surpass issues in its current account deficit and external dependence will also be reduced by 25 percent, he added.

“I believe we should advance our cooperation with Algeria in the energy field rapidly. We should develop joint projects,” the president said.

Erdoğan added Algeria and Turkey remain determined to give necessary support to the business community to invest in the energy sector.

The president’s visit to Algeria — the first stop in a four-nation African tour — is the second presidential trip to the country. After Algeria, Erdoğan was set to head to Mauritania on Feb. 28, followed by Senegal and Mali.

The mutual agreements signed on Feb. 26 included cooperation on hydrocarbons and a cooperation protocol on a Turkology project signed between Turkey’s Yunus Emre Institute and Algeria’s Setif-2 University.

The Turkish and Algerian foreign ministers signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation between Turkey’s Foreign Ministry Diplomacy Academy and the Algerian Foreign Ministry’s Diplomatic and International Relations Institute.

Another memorandum of understanding regarding cooperation on agriculture was signed between the agriculture ministers of the two countries.

The culture ministers of both countries signed a cooperation protocol to utilize the common cultural heritage between Turkey and Algeria.