Full issue - Ministère de l'énergie et des mines

REFORMS
Establishment ceremony of the board of directors of the Mining
Ahmed Ouyahia :
“The reforms are essential”
“It is indeed our increasingly intense
effort for national development, which
is more beneficial for the country and
more profitable for the citizens which is
at the centre of the ceremony which
brings us together today, namely the
establishment of the board of directors
and of the National Mining Estate
Agency, the National Geology and
Mining Control Agency as well as the
Electricity and Gas Regulation
Commission
(…)
But our country has unfortunately
experienced serious delays in achieving
the necessary transition – delays which
have cost us an awful lot (…) We must
also remember and remember once
more the progress which Algeria would
not have been able to make without the
invaluable contribution of the reforms
(…)
Hence, for a few years now, in the
reinstated safety and stability, Algeria
has re-established development and
growth and is finally seeing unemployment
begin to reduce. This development
is tangible everywhere in the
country, even though it is naturally still
insufficient. But we must not forget
that this progress is also the fruit of the
structural reforms which were made a
few years ago.
Likewise, our country very fortunately
turned over the page on the era of multiple
shortages. We must accept that
this is the effect of the liberalisation of
the market, now majority owned by the
private sector.
We must also note that the experiments
already carried out in terms of privatising
public companies have very often
entailed beneficial effects on the production,
on the fate of the workers and
on the creation of new jobs. The example
of El Hadjar, which is a symbol of
the national industry, proves this. We
should also remember that where the
missions of the State and the company
have already been distinguished, the
workers of the sector have lost nothing;
in fact completely to the contrary, but
above all, the consumers have greatly
benefited from this.
For this purpose, we remember the
stormy debates, only five years ago, on
the reform of the post and telecommunications
and today note the collective
satisfaction on free access for everyone
and in the competition of the mobile
phone, for example.
It is also by remembering our opinion
that the price margin of energy products
has not seen any change for
seven long years that we will block the
way to the current manipulations of
annuitants and politicians further to the
recent increase in these margins.
Of course, order will be maintained
and the law rigorously applied, but the
citizen must also understand the real
stakes and know that populism is still a
victim of its own restrictions and if we
need proof of this, remember the bitter
experience of the late, but enormous,
increases of the prices of bread and
milk in the 1990s.
The new hydrocarbons law will be
naturally faithful to the Constitution. It
will not reduce the share of the nation
in the hydrocarbons resources – in fact,
completely the opposite. Neither does it
have the aim of privatising Sonatrach.
This law which will commit the responsibility
of the State in its public authority
mission through appropriate organisms
will release Sonatrach and any
other national hydrocarbons industry
from the restrictions and costs. It will
enable the hydrocarbons industry to
commit even more its own resources
and mobilise other contributions to
develop its contribution to the national
development. This same law will enable
Algeria to reinforce the exploration and
exploitation of its capacities and hence
reinforce its potentials on the global
energy market and, hence, consolidate
the national wealth (…)”
The principles assigned
by the new legislative
framework
For the mines
• accessibility to the activity by any operator
• separation of the ownership of the soil from
the ownership of the subsoil
• distinction of the role of the State and that
of the operator
• removal of the discretionary power
• equal treatment of all economic operators
• specific taxation
• granting tax advantages
• guarantee to transfer the invested capital
• mining titles have a legal value
• saleability and transferability of mining titles
• awarding of mining titles by adjudication for
the fields study on public funds
• protection of the environment.
For electricity and the distribution of gas
• opening up to the competition and to private
investment for the electricity production by
assignments
• opening up to the competition and to private
investment for the electricity and gas production
by pipelines by assignments
• free access to the transportation and distribution
systems for all operators
• putting in place a market operator for the
wholesale market
• creation of an independent regulation body
• restructuring of Sonelgaz
• pricing freely negotiated for the eligible
clients
• pricing regulated on the basis of equalisation
for the captive clients and for the prices
relating to network access
• the State’s guarantee for the public service.
Energie & Mines
22
november 2005