Newsletter No. 246
April 23, 2006

 

“ON THE ROAD” TO JAPAN-CHINA RIVALRY IN ALGERIA

The Nihon Keizai Shinbun has reported that a consortium of Japanese construction companies, led by the trading house Itochu, has won preferential rights to build a high-speed highway in northeastern Algeria, to the Tunisian border. This is part of a larger project to build the highway all the way across the northern part of the country.

The Japanese group consists of Kajima Corp., Taisei Corp., Maeda Corp., Nishimatsu Construction Co. and Hazama Corp. The price tag on this project is a cool US$5 billion, making it one of Japan’s largest business deals in the Islamic world. The building of the road is expected to begin before the end of this year, and be completed by 2009.

The overall highway project is split into western, central, and eastern sections, with each one traversing about 400 km. The Japanese companies have won the eastern section. Who won the other two sections? Apparently, both of them have been bagged by Chinese companies. Presumably, that means that the Chinese investment in Algeria has just taken an even bigger leap than that of Japan.

In any case, it looks like a lot of East Asians are going to running around the Algerian countryside for the next few years. I wonder if there will be any trouble?

 

Related Link:

For Shingetsu members who can read either French or Japanese, there is webpage maintained by the Japan-Algeria Center

http://www.japan-algeria-center.jp/special/fr/special0f.html