Roundup: Algeria makes democratic progress amid economic difficulties

Despite remarkable political reforms that have been undergone in Algeria through 2016, the economic side has not been bright, amid unprecedented drop in oil prices which affected the nation's revenues and forced the government to adopt austerity plan.

Political analyst, Abdelkader Djemaa, told Xinhua that "the adoption of a new constitution is the major event in 2016, given that it was among promises made by incumbent president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in election campaign in 2014."

Djemaa further added that the content of this constitutional reform lays on two main factors. "Firstly, it reinforced public and individual liberties, introduced additional measures in terms of the fight against corruption, in addition to the establishment of Tamazight (Berber) as official language, and the establishment of a permanent body for monitoring elections."

"Secondly, this new constitution reaffirmed that President of the Republic is the centre of the regime," he added.

These amendments "pledge to provide more liberties after an era characterized by the non accreditation of new political parties, and preventing other opposition parties to hold their sit-ins in open spaces," political analyst Boualem Ghoumrassa told Xinhua.

Earlier on February 2016, the overwhelming majority of deputies of the two houses of the Algerian Parliament approved the draft amended constitution, amid boycott of opposition parties.

The main amendments in this new constitution establish Tamazight as an official language, limit the presidency to two terms, and ban Bi-nationals to hold high state office.

However, Algeria's hydrocarbons dependent economy is still lagging behind, despite the government's considerable efforts to boost non-oil industries.

The heavy drop in the North African nation's revenues due to the plunging oil prices for the second year in a row, forced the cabinet to announce the adoption of a new economy model.

For Djemaa, this model is based on two pillars: searching for non-oil revenues, and gradually reducing social subsidy programs.

"The government decided to attract more investments by reducing taxes on investors and businessmen," Djemaa said, adding "but some antagonists believe that such tax advantages are legalized squandering of public money."

However, Abdelkader Djemaa further notes that "the government is able to safeguard the major balances of the economy thanks to the recovery of oil prices in the last two months after considerable efforts of the Algerian economic diplomacy among OPEC and non-OPEC producers which concluded in historical agreement to cut global outputs by 1.3 million barrel a day, which pushed oil prices to the level of 55 USD a barrel. But again, Algeria wraps up its economy year with hope mixed with fear."

The oil rich nation's foreign reserves lost 30.8 billion USD in a year (Sept. 2015 - Sept. 2016), due to the oil prices drop.

Despite this financial difficulty, Algeria has not modified its defense policy amid growing security threats, as it allocated a budget worth 15 billion USD for its National Defense Ministry.

The North African nation has been deploying thousands of troops all along its borderline with Tunisia, Libya, Niger and Mali to foil intrusion attempts of arms and terrorists.

Merouane Lounnas, a political analyst told Xinhua that "despite the collapse of Algeria's revenues due to the drop in oil prices, and the adoption of austerity plans by the government, the defense budget remains high. It means that the government is still concerned by the security situation amid the ongoing threats posed by terrorist groups based in neighboring Libya and Mali."

Lounnas concluded that "Algerian authorities are working hard to help peacefully resolving the crisis in Libya, a major source of terrorist threats in the region." Endit