May 2006
The state owned Algerian telco, Algerie Telecom and the French postal service La Poste, a state company which operates independently from the government, inked an agreement that will enable the two to increase their partnership in the areas of financial services. The companies will link their IT infrastructure to enable a seamless electronic transfer of funds. They will also work to standardize their engineering, marketing and sales initiatives, essentially to benefit Algerie Telecom as it seeks to improve its performance with the aim of being privatized in the long run. The agreement also extends beyond electronic fund transfer to mail processing.
The state owned Algerian telco, Algerie Telecom and the French postal service La Poste, a state company which operates independently from the government, inked an agreement that will enable the two to increase their partnership in the areas of financial services. The companies will link their IT infrastructure to enable a seamless electronic transfer of funds. They will also work to standardize their engineering, marketing and sales initiatives, essentially to benefit Algerie Telecom as it seeks to improve its performance with the aim of being privatized in the long run. The agreement also extends beyond electronic fund transfer to mail processing.
Negotiations between the two in this area began in July 2005 and a special joint committee was established to provide the guidelines required to put the partnership into practice over the next six months.
It is still unclear what sort of privatization prospect Algerie Telecom will face. Discussions are underway among the decision makers in the telco sector in Algeria, where a consensus appears to be emerging whereby the domestic telecom market could remain controlled by the government while international telecommunications could be open to competition.
It is also unclear how the other company, Algerie Poste, the Algerian postal service will evolve in an environment where the telco firm could cannibalize its business. Algerie Poste, which has 25,000 agents, benefited thus far from assistance from Sofrepost, a subsidiary of La Poste of France as part of the Euro-Med Meda program.
© The North Africa Journal 2006
