Alexandre Rocha, special envoy*
Brasilia – The president of Algeria, Abedelaziz Bouteflika, demonstrated today an interest for alcohol as a fuel and for the vehicles manufactured in Brazil. Accompanied by the minister of Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade, Luiz Fernando Furlan. Bouteflika saw two dual fuel cars manufactured by General Motors (GM), that were exhibited in the garden of the Blue Tree Towers in Brazilian capital city, Brasilia.
"We will organise a mission to Algeria in the sense of seeing the opportunities for business in various sectors, including the possibility of exchanging methanol for products with naphtha, liquefied natural gas and other products they have available," said Furlan.
According to the minister, in spite of Algeria being a great oil producer, ethanol may be used as a fuel to reduce the emission of polluting gases. "At the same time this represents an opportunity for the Brazilian automobile industry," stated Furlan.
According to him, Bouteflika was very interested in the dual fuel system developed in Brazil that allows for the use of alcohol and petrol, or a mixture of the two, and also by the cars. Furlan showed two car models, an Astra sedan and a mini van Zafira. "They import a lot of cars in Algeria and the president asked me where do we export and I told him mainly to Latin America, but also to other countries, including China," said Furlan.
Exports
Brazil has also increased their vehicles exports to the Arab countries, including Algeria. The idea to see the vehicles in Brasilia came from president Bouteflika himself, after a conversation with president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, during a dinner yesterday offered by the Brazilian government to the participants of the summit for South American and Arab countries.
*Translated by Silvia Lindsey
