Ambassador Hocine Sahraoui of Algeria and Mrs. Sahraoui hosted a reception at Lotte Hotel in Seoul on Oct. 30, 2014 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Algerian Revolution of 1st November 1954.

There came many important guests who included, from the Korean society, Ambassador Choi Sung-joo for International Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vice President Mrs. Kim Sun-hyang of Korean National Red Cross (NKRC, wife of the president of Kyungnam University), Adviser Mrs. Lee Sun-jin of KNRA on Women’s Volunteer Service (wife of the chairman of the Youngone Business Group), Publisher-Chairman Lee Kyung-sik of The Korea Post and Vice President Lee Myung-hoon of KOTFA.

From the Diplomatic Corps came many mission chiefs who included Ambassadors Natallia Jhylevich of Belarus, Dato Haji Harun Ismail of Brunei Darussalam, Petar Andonov of Bulgaria, Bessho Koro of Japan, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi of Kuwait, Mohammed Chraibi of Morocco, Mohamed Salim Alharthy of Oman, Zahid Nasrulah Khan of Pakistan, Krzysztof Majka of Poland, Antonio Quintero Nobre of Portugal, Konstantin V. Vnukov of Russia, Tissa Wijeratne of Sri Lanka and Mohamed Ali Nafti of Tunisia.

Speaking to the guests, Ambassador Sahraoui of Algeria said, “In a short period of time, Algeria and Korea have developed an exemplary relation. With a joint will and commitment to build strong ties, our two governments concluded in 2006 a Strategic Partnership. The volume of trade more than quadrupled since that year, agreements have been signed in almost all the fields and many joint projects have been achieved in a “win-win” spirit of cooperation.’

Excerpts from the speech follow:
It is a great honour for me to warmly welcome you this evening, to share with you the celebration of the sixtieth National Day of Algeria.

First of all, I would like to express my pleasure to have with us H.E Ambassador CHOI, Sung-Joo, who brilliantly served his country, as Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Algeria. He is still remaining in Algeria the Korean envoy who promoted significantly the Algeria-Korea relations. I felt it my duty to underline it today.

The celebration of the National day has, for Algeria, a particular importance this year. It is, in fact, the sixtieth anniversary of the outbreak of the independence war of the First November 1954. That day, the whole people rose up their heads and engaged on the path of sacrifice and honor, to live in freedom. Seven and half years later, after a terrible war, the independent Algeria was born. I would like, in this occasion, to pay a tribute to the memory of one million and half martyrs, fallen so that live their country.

The recovery of the National sovereignty was not the ultimate objective of the war of independence. The finality was to start another struggle, that of development, and above all, the construction of a society where the injustice endured during the colonization will be banished and a Republican State where all the citizens will be equal before the law. This ambitious project, enshrined, during the war, in a document entitled Soummam platform, is lasting, despite all the obstacles, the ultimate reference for the Algerian successive Governments.

If we were to shortly sum up on this day, we can say that the result is more than positive.

On the economic front, all the macroeconomic indicators are green, despite the unfavorable international environment. To illustrate the good health of the national economy and its dynamism, a plan of public investment of 262 billion dollars for the five coming years, will be launched at the end of this year, with the objective to give a new impetus to local development, and human development, as well as to consolidate the basis of a productive and diversified economy.

However, the greatest battles were won on the front of the continuation of the democratic process and the completion of the construction of the state. Without drawing up an exhaustive list, the fundamental principle of multi-party system, the freedom of expression, gender equality and the freedom of worship, has been written in golden letter in the Algerian constitution. The particular domain of the promotion of women deserves to be underlined. A voluntarist policy allowed to go beyond the social conservatism and to give the women a key role in the economic and political fields. The proportion of women in the parliament is 35%, the Algerian Government has currently 7 women ministers, dozens of women are head of diplomatic or consular missions and the number of women entrepreneurs is rapidly growing.

저작권자 © The Korea Post 무단전재 및 재배포 금지