ALGERIA CANDIDATES, PD STRATEGY FOR PRESIDENTIAL

UNCLAS ALGIERS 001085

SIPDIS

STATE FOR S/P - GREG BEHRMAN

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON EAID PREL SOCI AG
SUBJECT: ALGERIA CANDIDATES, PD STRATEGY FOR PRESIDENTIAL
ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT

REF: STATE 112468


1. Embassy submits the following candidates for the
Presidential Entrepreneurship Summit:

Issad Rebrab - Conglomerate Magnate
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Rebrab is one of Algeria's industrial titans. Born in 1944
near Tizi Ouzou, the largest city in the Berber area of
Northern Algeria, Rabrab is CEO of the Cevital group,
Algeria's largest manufacturer, which has 12 subsidiaries
involved in food processing, construction materials, prefab
housing, and electronic appliances. Now employing 15,000
people, his group plans to expand and invest USD 12 billion
by 2012 and create 10,000 new jobs.

Rebrab began as a teacher of business and accounting. He
entered business in 1971 by buying 20 percent of the steel
company Sotecom. He then formed two new steel companies
(Prifilor in 1975, Metal Sider in 1988). In 1998, he
formed the Cevital group, whose main activity is food
processing but which has diversified and opened three new
plants: one producing flat glass for construction, the
second (CEVICO) specializing in prefab housing, and the
third producing electronic appliances in partnership with
Samsung. Cevital has a work force of 15,000.

Rebrab's other holdings are the French-language daily
newspaper "Liberte" and the Hyundai Motors branch in
Algeria, of which he is the President. In addition, Rebrab
is the executive representative of Korean Samsung
Electronics in Algeria with his subsidiary Samha. He is
the major participant in the Desertec project for the
production of solar energy in the Algerian desert with
German and other European companies, including ABENGOA
Solar, Deutsche Bank, HSH Nordbank, MAN Solar Millennium,
Munich Re, M+W Zander, and SIEMENS. He is also the
Algerian representative of car rental company Europcar.

Rebrab has plans to develop a USD 20-billion project in Cap
Djenet in Boumerdes called Cap 2015, which is to include a
large industrial zone with a deep-water container port.

Issab Rebrab would bring to the Entrepreneurship Summit the
experience of large industrialist active across multiple
sectors - including renewable energy - and selling to both
domestic and foreign markets. He has been in the forefront
of moving Algeria away from its post-independence socialist
tradition dependent on oil revenue and hostile to private
enterprise and toward an environment open to
entrepreneurship.

Slim Othmani - Cross-Border Entrepreneurial Networking,
Corporate Governance-Social Engagement
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Slim Othmani is CEO of a canning company (New Algerian Can
Company - Nouvelle Conserverie Algerienne - NCA),a family
business. He was born in 1957 in Algeria but grew up in
Tunisia where he received his higher education and
graduated in computer science from the faculty of Sciences
of Tunis. He also has a degree from the South
Mediterranean School of Business in Tunis. After several
years in Canada, he returned to Algeria in the mid-1990's.
In 1999, he took over from his father as CEO of NCA.

Othmani is working to develop a partnership with
entrepreneurs from Tunisia and Morocco to cut through
government impediments and achieve cross-border private
investment in the Maghreb - across Morocco, Algeria,
Tunisia, and Libya. He is also an active member of the
business entrepreneurs' think-tank Center for Enterprise
Action and Thought (CARE). He chaired the government task
force that drafted the Algerian Corporate Governance Code.
Othmani is an active member in the premier Algerian Forum
of Heads of Enterprises (FCE) and is driving the FCE to
deepen relations between universities and the corporate
world. He has run for chairman of the FCE.

Nationalist economic policies in North Africa create
enormous obstacles to entrepreneurship seeking to bridge
national barriers. Othmani would bring to the summit the
perspective of an entrepreneur working to form networks of
entrepreneurs across borders. From his work in CARE, he
would also bring to the table his experience in promoting
good corporate governance and corporate social engagement.

Sofiane Chaib - English Language Training
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Chaib is the Managing Director of IN-tuition Ltd, an
Algeria-based language training business established as a
direct response to the changing needs of professional adult
learners. The company provides high-quality programs and
is one of the leading private-sector providers of business
English language training in Algeria. In less than five
years, Chaib and his wife have brought this fledgling start
up to a thriving organization with 15 full-time staff
members and over 65 teaching consultants working throughout
the country. The center sends over 150 students a year
overseas for short specialized language courses, academic
year-abroad programs, and other activities. They are
making significant advances in the growing field of English
language training in Algeria. There is a strong demand,
and they have filled a void with a quality product.

In 2006, the U.S. Embassy in Algiers recommended that the
center become the first language centre in Algeria to offer
the Internet-based TOEFL examinations and the Internet
TOEIC examination of behalf of Educational Testing
Services. Currently, In-tuition has an average of two
scheduled testing administrations a month, and tests over
200 students a year. Earlier this year, the business moved
into a new facility in the elite business district of Hydra
in Algiers, and they are planning to open another training
facility. By the end of 2010, the center plans to open
locations in major cities in both the eastern and western
regions of Algeria.

Mr. Chaib is bringing to his country significant advances
in English language training, one of the most glaring
deficiencies in business both here and throughout the
Middle East. We recommend Mr. Chaib for the Presidential
Summit on Entrepreneurship for filling a void with a
quality product for which there is a high demand.

Ali Haddad - Construction
--------------

Haddad is the President and CEO of Algeria's largest
private sector construction company, ETRHB (Etablissement
de Travaux Routiers Hydrauliques et Batiments -
Establishment for Road, Hydraulic and Building
Construction),which was formed in the mid 1980's. Mr.
Haddad is a pioneer in his field, running a private firm
generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues
yearly. Under the leadership of Mr. Haddad, ETRHB has
completed numerous projects throughout the country
including road construction and maintenance, dams, ports,
buildings, and water pipelines. Mr. Haddad is a
cool-headed business leader receptive to American solutions
and equipment. He is from Algeria's younger generation of
business leaders and is known for his prudent business
decisions, which have been a key to ETRHB's success over
the years. Mr. Haddad originates from Azzifoun in
Algeria's Berber region.

Algeria has a cash-rich state but an infrastructure-poor
economy that will be tendering large infrastructure
projects in the next several years. In the past, most such
contracts have gone to foreign firms. Embassy recommends
Ali Haddad for the Entrepreneurship Summit as one of
Algeria's few construction entrepreneurs whose company
stands to win some of these contracts and fill Algeria's
huge infrastructure gap, thus expanding construction
management expertise in this country.

Dalila Nadjem - Publishing
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Nadjem is the founder and owner of the publishing house
Maison d'Edition DALIMEN. She first moved to Algeria from
France in 1984 to pursue what she viewed as wide-open
opportunities in a relatively undeveloped market. For
several years, she worked for various companies and
institutions, including the Algerian Ministry of Commerce.
In 1994, she became president of the non-governmental
organization El AZHAR, which assists needy Algerian
families. In 1996, during the height of Algeria's domestic
conflict with terrorism, she founded the company PCCOM
(Communications Agency, Publishing, Layout, and Design),
where she is currently the CEO with 22 employees. Major
clients of her firm include companies in the hydrocarbon
and transportation sectors.

Building on her success, in 2001, she founded la Maison
d'Edition DALIMEN, a publishing house focused on cultural
heritage topics and children's books, which currently has
approximately 85 titles in print (see www.dalimen.com for
details). She has also established two bookstores in the
greater Algiers region. In recognition of her success and

influence in the publishing and arts communities, in 2008,
the Algerian Ministry of Culture tapped her to help
rejuvenate the arts and named her commissioner of the
annual Algiers International Comics Festival. Under her
leadership and with the close cooperation of international
partners (including the U.S. Department of State),Algiers
has hosted two highly successful festivals to date and
drawn attention from around the world to the reopening of
the Algerian artistic community.

The Public Affairs Section of Embassy Algiers worked
closely with Mrs. Nadjem on the Festival, and we found her
to be a consummate entrepreneur who commands the respect
and affection of her professional colleagues. At a time
when most saw Algeria as an undeveloped country torn by
civil unrest, she returned from Europe to seize the
opportunities she saw to build, grow, and heal a nation
through economic progress and celebration of culture. We
nominate Mrs. Nadjem to attend the Presidential Summit on
Entrepreneurship in Washington because she serves as a role
model through her extraordinary skills and inspiring work.

Sonia Ziamni - Developer, Woman Entrepreneur
--------------

Ziamni is Project Manager for the Algerian Medina Project,
a billion-dollar sea-front real estate development
project. Ms. Ziamni is the most successful young woman
entrepreneur known to the Embassy's Commercial Section.
She obtained her Baccalaureat with honors and majored in
accounting and finance at the Algiers School of Commerce
and the University of Economic and Management Science of
Algiers. Upon completion of her studies, Ms. Zianmi worked
in a variety of fields, including for Air Algerie, for a
medical association called l'Ordre des Medecins, and for
the construction company Arabian General Engineering.

In her current capacity as Medina Project Manager, Ms.
Zianmi has key responsibilities in executing commercial
partnerships, coordinating production of architectural
plans for the project's commercial center, and ensuring the
timely progress of construction of the project. In
addition, Ms. Zianmi is putting in place visitor access
control systems and communications, and has a leading role
in the formation of a business plan for the project's food
court and business center.

The Embassy recommends Ms. Zianmi because of the
big-project organizational talent that she would bring to
the Summit and her drive that highlights the energy women
entrepreneurs can provide in the Islamic world when given
the opportunity.

Ali Kahlane - Information Technology
--------------

Kahlane is the key information, communications, and
technology contact of the Embassy's Commercial Section. He
is President of Algerian firm Satlinker, a cutting edge
Internet, video-conferencing, and
Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) technology firm. Mr.
Kahlane's vision and energy helped break Algeria out of its
IT backwardness earlier this decade. Playing a leading
role in TOUIZA, an association of 12 Algerian Internet
Service Providers, Mr. Kahlane helped shape Algerian
telecommunications and Internet policy, and promoted
adoption of information and communication technology in a
country where statist economic traditions make leaders
reluctant to adopt new technology.

Mr. Kahlane studied in Algeria at the National Institute of
Computer Science (Institut National d'Informatique) and the
National College of Computer Science (l'Ecole Superieure
d'Information) and received his PhD in Computer Science
from Uxbridge University in England. Mr. Kahlane has
contributed in many ways to technology adoption in Algeria,
including by introducing digital information technologies
to the Algerian military, working as editor in chief of the
Algerian computer science journal "L'Ordinateur," serving
as president of the Association of Internet Service
Providers, and sitting on the Ministry of Post's Committee
of Research for the Development of Information
Technologies.

Mr. Kahlane is a bright and engaging business leader whom
the Embassy recommends for the Entrepreneurial Summit as
someone experienced in introducing information technology
into a business culture.

Hind Ben Miloud - Business Law
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Miloud is the single most important female business lawyer
in Algeria. For the past 20 years, she has run her law
firm, Ben Miloud and Partners, which now has nine other
lawyers. Ms. Ben Miloud has played a leading role in
pressing for adoption of business-friendly franchising laws
and procedures in Algeria. She also advises dozens of
leading companies in Algeria in other areas of business law
including banking law, maritime law, intellectual property
rights protection, fraud prevention, and media relations.
Ben Miloud and Partners is the only firm in Algeria that
specializes in law covering information technology.

Ms. Ben Miloud provided extensive consultations to the U.S.
Department of Commerce's Division of Commercial Law
Development in the adoption of business-friendly laws in
Algeria. She also provided valuable legal expertise in
support of the United States' largest investment outside of
the hydrocarbon sector - the Hamma desalination plant,
built and managed by General Electric. Ms. Ben Miloud is
an articulate and engaging expert in her field, and she has
played a major role in supporting U.S. business interests
during challenging times in Algeria.

Embassy recommends Ms. Hind Ben Miloud for the
Entrepreneurial Summit. She would bring to it an intimate
knowledge of legal hurdles to doing business and legal
reforms that are needed in the overly statist business
environment common to much of the Arab and Islamic world.

Saddedine Mohand - Innovative Construction Technologies
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Saddedine is a young entrepreneur who manages a family
business, Aluver Construction. He graduated from the
National Institute of Fabric Technologies and Textile
(Ministry of Labor),and studied accounting and management
between 1995 and 1998. For two years he was responsible of
quality control of a public textile company. In 2002, he
became the manager of EGTB SADDEDINE Construction Company.
In 2008, he founded his own company, Aluver Construction,
which uses new technologies in construction such as
aluminum and reinforced glass components. He opened a new
workshop in Baba Ali for the manufacture of window glass
and wall aluminum. Saddedine is 35 and is one of Algeria's
most promising young managers

Saddedine Mohand would bring to the Entrepreneurship Summit
the perspective of the young, start-up business owner
manufacturing items for which there is a huge demand in
this country plagued by a chronic housing shortage.

Kaci Ibrahim - Beverages
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Ibrahim is CEO of IFRI Waters, which produces bottled
water, juice, and soft drinks. He created the company in
1986, starting small with a single production line, and
later growing into one of the largest beverage companies in
the country. In 1995, the company obtained a permit to
exploit a prime water source in the valley of Soummam,
which became the company's main source for the spring water
it bottled. In 1998 Brahim extended the activities of IFRI
and developed new production lines for mineral water, soft
drinks, and juice.

This entrepreneur could bring to the Entrepreneurship
Summit the perspective of a fast growing industry whose
products are consumed by a large majority of the
population.

Summit PD Strategy
--------------


2. Post's pre-Summit PD strategy is to host a press
roundtable with the Summit attendees, the PAO, and Pol-Eon
Chief to discuss the objectives of the Summit and expected
outcomes. We will also use our contacts to get the
Algerian participants at the Summit on both Arabic and
French language morning radio shows. A representatives
from the Embassy will accompany them to each program and be
available to provide more specific information about the
Summit's objectives.

JORDAN