Full issue - Ministère de l'énergie et des mines

REFORMS
The central trade union gives its support to the hydrocarbons law
The seven reasons of the UGTA
The Algerian General Workers’ Union
(UGTA) has given its support to the
contents of the hydrocarbons bill and
explains, in seven points, the reasons
for this in a letter sent to the Head of
the government, Mr Ahmed Ouyahia.
The UGTA declares that it has “taken
note of the clarifications and commitments
presented by the government”
and considers that the institutional
completion of the hydrocarbons law
"will contribute to improving the performances
of the national economy and
of the social welfare of our citizens", we
read in this letter signed by the
Secretary General of the organisation,
Mr Sidi-Saïd. The “clarifications" and
"commitments" made by the government
are summarised by the UGTA in
seven points, in this letter, beginning
with the fact that “this text “does not,
either now or in the future, aim to open
up the capital of Sonatrach, whether
totally or partially, with the capital
being integrally owned by the State.”
According to the UGTA, the government
is also committed to the fact that
the text "nowhere, either now or in the
future, harms the jobs of the workers of
Sonatrach and of its subsidiaries or to
the social rights and benefits of its workers,
in accordance with the legislation
in force". The bill “nowhere aims to call
into question the State's ownership of
the fields and subsoils in accordance
with the Constitution" and "nowhere
aims to harm, either now or in the future,
the current assets owned by
Sonatrach, whether these are wells,
perimeters, pipelines or others" are the
two other clarifications made by the
government, according to the trade
union organisation.
The authorities also explained, according
to the UGTA, that the text “aims
to increase the resources drawn, by the
nation, of hydrocarbons, whether these
are external financial resources or tax
resources" and to "encourage the development
of the industry in Algeria
around hydrocarbons, including in the
downstream domain and particularly
petrochemistry”. The last point emphasised
by the UGTA in its letter to the
Head of the government, indicates that
the Executive has confirmed to the
union that the changes which will be
made in the future on the prices of
energy products, on the domestic market
“will be made gradually and will
take account of the purchasing power
of the citizens with, where appropriate,
direct public subsidies from the State
aimed at the economic operators in the
energy sector”.
In its letter to Mr Ouyahia, the trade
union began by “congratulating the
effort to which it has been invited by
the government on the hydrocarbons
bill” and finds that this governmental
initiative “is likely to consolidate the
partnership relationship to which the
UGTA, the government and the economic
operators are working together”.
The bill, which was discussed one last
time by Mr Ouyahia and a delegation of
the UGTA, must now pass to the
government cabinet and then to the
Council of Ministers before being submitted
to the two Chambers of
Parliament, very likely in the next
Spring session.
Economy-insurances
The insurance law will be modified
The Minister of Finance intends to make a revision to the
ordinance and the professionals expect a discussion to be able
to take place on the bill within the sector, AAI learnt from
reliable sources. The control function will be concerned by
this reform in a sense of greater reinforcement, according to
the same sources. Whilst awaiting these reforms, the National
Insurance Council (CNA) intends to initiate several actions to
boost the dynamics of the activity of the sector and to contribute
to achieving this objective. The council’s programme is
not limited to promoting the law on the obligation of insurance
against natural catastrophes, but it is also interested by the
users. Risk-management is also one of the actions which the
sector wants to develop, even if there are not many specialists
in charge of this function. Some companies, such as
Sonatrach, have put a structure in place for health, safety and
the environment (HSE) to take responsibility for the riskmanagement
issue. The insurance sector is also aiming to put
in place joint risks and insurance training structures.
The CNA, likewise, wanted to see the emergence of risk
management associations among the natural partners of the
insurance companies and training courses have been carried
out in favour of the managers of private and public companies
by experts who came to Algiers with this goal in mind. Other
projects are also scheduled, such as the modernisation by
using the new information and communication technologies.
For the time being, only a few companies have announced
that they intend to enable their clients to make some currency
transactions through the Internet, with the aim of offering
other services.
These projects must avoid ending up in the same way as the
project on the direct compensation agreement of the insurance
companies which hardly saw the light of day, according to
the CAN, which did however recommend in a study carried
out in 1999 the implementation of a direct car compensation
agreement to improve the compensation timeframes of the
policyholders which are deemed excessive. The delays in processing
inter-company claims and those within a same company
between the agencies were evoked to explain these timeframes.
This agreement was adopted in 2000 and should
come into force in January 2001.
Energie & Mines
20
november 2005