A mission of businesswomen from Quebec visits Algeria. Objective: Learn about female entrepreneurship and the organizations that support and assist women entrepreneurs.

A delegation of Canadian businesswomen led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for SMEs, Regulatory Facilitation and Regional Economic Development, Ms. Lise Thériault, will visit Algeria from 2 to 4 July 2017.

This mission, decided during the visit of a delegation from the Forum of Business Leaders (FCE) to Canada last April, aims to explore the business field in Algeria and gain knowledge about female entrepreneurship, in particular the various organizations that offer support and support services to women entrepreneurs.

Ms. Lise Thériault expects that the mission will expand the network of Canadian women entrepreneurs in Algeria and the Maghreb countries. “There are programs to promote female entrepreneurship and funds have been created for this purpose. We intend to work closely with the FCE, which in turn has a department for women entrepreneurs, which will enable us to build a common network.”

“The Canadian Femmessor network is present in 17 regions of Quebec and supports start-up, consolidation, expansion or acquisition projects through financing services, support, training and networking activities,” emphasized Ms. Isabelle Roy, Canadian Ambassador to Algeria.

In figures, the proportion of women entrepreneurs in Quebec is 39% in 2016, while in Algeria it is 23% according to NRC data (10,444 up to February 2017). Trade between the two countries is estimated at nearly $2.4 billion. They favor Algeria, but have experienced development in recent years due to the fall in oil prices.

Algeria remains Canada’s leading trading partner in Africa and ranks 32nd in the world. The areas of cooperation are not limited to the economic sector. In the field of education, we can note that in 2016 there were 1,160 Algerian students in Canada out of a total of 38,000 foreign students.