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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHAS #1085/01 3411506
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O 071506Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8204

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 
----------------------------------- 
 
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 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
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 
----------------------------------------- 
 
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 
-------------------------- 
 
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 
------------------------------ 
 
 
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 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
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 
------------------------- 
 
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