Opening remarks of His Excellency Mohammed HANECHE,

Ambassador of Algeria to the USA at the breakfast meeting with the Board of Directors of the USABC
December 1, 2022, Washington D.C.

Mr. Yunus Dogan, Chairman of the Board of the USABC,
Dr. Ismael Chikhoune, President & CEO of the USABC,
Distinguished members of the Board of the USABC and representatives of US companies,

Allow me first to thank you for welcoming me to Washington DC as the new Ambassador of Algeria to the United States, and for your kind invitation to this meeting.

I would also like to thank you all for giving me the privilege and opportunity to serve as Honorary Chairman of the Board of the US-Algeria Business Council. I am particularly delighted to be able to support the activities of the US-Algeria Business Council and to continue this fine tradition established by my predecessors.

I greatly appreciate the valuable efforts made to date by the US-Algeria Business Council, since its creation in 2002, in promoting mutually beneficial business and investment relations between Algeria and the United States, and you can be assured that I look forward to working with USABC, its Board of Directors and business members, to further develop and promote Algerian-American economic interests.

Please consider me as an ordinary member among you and I will listen to your concerns. Rest assured that the doors of the Embassy will be open to you at all times and please do not hesitate to contact me.

I undertake to work with you hand in hand, to make this Business Council a projection force capable of generating cooperation and an even greater volume of investment and trade between Algeria and the United States.

I will plead the cause and the concerns of the members of the Business Council with the Algerian authorities in charge of business and investment issues in the interest of both the Algerian and American business communities.

I will work for the rapprochement of political relations, the development of exchanges of delegations, ministers and senior officials, and the promotion of economic and commercial exchanges and the promotion of cultural dialogue.

My two short-term priorities and objectives are, on the one hand, to work on the opening of a direct airline between Algeria and the United States to facilitate human and commercial exchanges, for which negotiations for the signing of an open skies agreement have already been entered into with the American side, and on the other hand, the opening of a Consulate General in San Francesco in order to facilitate the movement of business delegations to Algeria and for which an agreement from the Department of State has already been acquired.

I will do everything to ensure that this Council can deliver its message for the interest of the USA-Algeria friendship and the cooperation and promotion of business relations. I will spare no effort to promote trade and investment between our two countries.

I will endeavor to work for the promotion of Algerian-American economic and trade relations. In this spirit of cooperation and collaboration, I will call on you whenever necessary to advance our common objectives.

I take this opportunity to appeal to your spirit of initiative and your contribution to relaunch the Algeria-USA Caucus within the American Congress, which I wish to be as broad as it is representative and diversified. As such, any suggestion (ideas, contacts, approaches, actions) that can help the constitution of this Caucus is welcome and will be highly appreciated.

It is for me a very particular pleasure to pay a vibrant tribute to the Board represented by its Chairman but also to the President and CEO Dr Chikhoune for the tireless efforts that they have never ceased to put into action to promote business relations between Algeria and the United States.

At the bilateral level, the agenda is particularly busy with two major visits scheduled for the coming weeks. We will first have the visit of the Prime Minister who will come to Washington to participate in the 2nd edition of the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit which will be held from December 13 to 15, 2022.

We will then have the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs on December 20 as part of the promotion of political dialogue and Algeria-USA cooperation.

I am convinced that these two visits will contribute to broadening the bases of understanding and cooperation between our two countries and especially cooperation in the areas of development and trade, investment and partnership. For more than 2 years, Algeria has undertaken substantial and important reforms to improve the business climate and attract foreign investment and to develop US-Algeria business and commercial partnerships.

I am confident that we will be able, together, to develop in the near future, new and important business and investment opportunities for the benefit of both Algeria and the US.

Thank you for your kind attention.