The North African block is a fast growing, nearby for Europe, market that should not be ignored. Lot's of opportunities for European companies to be active on this fascinating market !! Different culture, yes for sure, but organised Western style. They follow, either the roman system or the Anglo-saxon system, but one way or the other we can find a lot of similarities in the way businesses are created and organised. With the english and/or french lalnguage you can go a long way.

Since his ascencion to power as president of Algeria in 1999, Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika and his team have been the driving force behind the consolidation of the economic growth. Investing the receipts of oil, gas and other resources into the infrastructure of Algeria, remains the main engine behind the economic growth. That makes of course the ambitions of the country dependent on the marketprices of it's raw materials, but's that the name of the game !!

With an average oil price of USD 99 per barrel in 2008, the Bank of Algeria built up foreign exchange reserves to almost USD142 billion.  The government proceeded to early repayments and the total external debt fell to USD 460million or 0.27 % of gross domestic product [GDP]). Internal public debt dropped by nearly 30 per cent.

Since his third succesfull re-election, President Bouteflika and his team, are executing a plan to invest 112 milliard € in the economy. So a lot of work for interested companies in Western Europe. 

In Libya oil and gas production are the most important resources. Libya has been investing heavily in downstream industries like petrochemicals, refineries, fertilizers, and aluminum melting. High oil revenues combined with a small population give Libya one of the highest per capita GDPs in Africa. Since 2000, Libya has recorded favourable growth rates with an estimated 8.1% growth of GDP in 2006. Libya offers interesting opportunities, as it is importing quite some products on a regular basis.

On the 6th of august 2008 the government of Mauritania was overthrown by General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. On April 16, 2009, General Aziz resigned from the military to prepare himself for new elections, which were held on July the 19th. He won the elections with a 52% majority over the competition.

Mauritania has extensive deposits of iron ore, which account for almost 50% of total exports. The nation's coastal waters are among the richest fishing areas in the world, but overexploitation by foreigners threatens this key source of revenue. The country's first deepwater port opened near Nouakchott in 1986.

The Chinguetti oil reserves, discovered in 2001, put Mauritania more substantially on the world economic map. Before the discovery, fishing and agriculture made up almost one-third of the gross national product (GNP), mining one-fourth, and public administration about 15 percent.

Tunisia, the northernmost country on the African continent, is the smallest of the nations situated along the Atlas mountain range. The two most important assets of Tunisa are a particularly fertile soil and 1,300 km of coastline. In history Tunisia became known with the famous Phoenician city of Carthage.

With the proclamation of the Tunisian republic in July 25, 1957, the nationalist leader Habib Bourguiba became its first president and led the modernization of the country. Today Tunisia is an export-oriented country, in the process of liberalizing its economy.

Tunisia has close relations with both the European Union — with whom it has an association agreement — and the Arab world. Tunisia is also a member of the Arab League and the African union.

Tunisia's economic activities range from agriculture, mining, manufacturing, petroleum products and tourism. It also has one of Africa and the Middle East's highest per-capita GDPs  and invests a lot in education.

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