Algiers is right to invest in railways

Rail projects in North Africa do not get the same publicity as those in the Gulf. For sheer scale and ambition, few transport schemes compare to the Dubai Metro, or to Saudi Arabia's effort to link the east and west coasts of the Arabian Peninsula by rail.

However, Algeria's recent spending to rebuild its rail network is now approaching the astronomical levels seen in the GCC. The $3.7bn worth of work currently in the pipeline is just the latest part of a multi-billion-dollar drive to tie the country's disparate industrial, commercial and social centres together.

Algeria's strategy has been a canny mixture of building new lines and refurbishing existing track. Rebuilding the country's 4,000 kilometres of railway lines is a mammoth task, but at least the basic infrastructure is already there - unlike the Gulf where, with the exceptions of Iraq and Iran, most railways are being built from scratch.

The Algerian government has struggled to impose security nationwide, and finds it difficult to stimulate regional economies beyond the capital. Transport can assist in this. Just as Baghdad has made rebuilding its transport infrastructure a lynchpin of the post-war reconstruction effort, so the government of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika is reinvesting the nation's oil and gas revenues into reconnecting the country's vital rail and road links. In particular, the Boucle du Sud railway now under a full feasibility study will link the country's oil and gas facilities on the edge of the Sahara and provide a rapid export link to the coast.

Transport alone is not a panacea for a nation's difficulties, but it is vital to building a cohesive industrial framework that will attract foreign investment, underpin economic growth and boost social stability. Bouteflika's government has much to do in other areas to improve Algeria's long-term prospects, but its investment in the nation's rail network is money wisely spent.