Speaking during his regular meeting with the national press, aired on national TV and radio on Saturday evening, the President of the Republic said the creation of the High Council of the National Scientific Community Abroad is "an old idea that has now been brought to life so that the national economy and the national development drive can keep pace with global advances in scientific research."

He underlined that "Algeria's development has reached a stage that calls for drawing on the expertise of its elite and scientific talents living abroad."

He added that many of the experts who have made their mark in scientific research and helped address global economic problems are Algerians, which is why, "Algeria has first claim on them."

President Tebboune cited several Algerian experts who have left a profound mark in developed countries, including Professor Elias Zerhouni, who served as Director of the US National Institutes of Health, the first non-American to head the world's largest scientific institution of its kind; Professor Noureddine Melikechi, an atomic physicist at the US space agency and a member of the Mars Science Laboratory; and Professor Yasmine Belkaid, one of the world's foremost immunologists and Director General of the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

He stressed that the experts he met at the Presidency of the Republic are driven by "a strong desire to take part in the country's development and give back to the homeland, all of them graduates of Algerian universities who have risen to the highest possible levels abroad," reaffirming that "Algeria today has entered a development phase that requires contributions from abroad, and those contributions can only come from Algerian hands."

The President of the Republic underscored that the elite abroad "will work with local researchers and with officials of sectors that require new measures in line with the world-class level those sectors have reached," including seawater desalination, agriculture, mining, oil and hydrocarbons, solar energy, scientific research, industry in all its branches, and even space research.

He noted that the contribution of these scientists "will be of great benefit to Algeria."

President Tebboune also highlighted that "Algeria today has no complex about drawing on the expertise of its children, and of all those who have attained a high level of knowledge abroad," adding that "development in the country has moved far from all kinds of ideologies and narrow thinking, as the children of Algeria are all its children, regardless of their backgrounds."

In this regard, he said that the High Council for the National Scientific Community Abroad "has structured itself on its own" and that its doors stand open to all Algerian experts living abroad.

President of the Republic

Algeria's development drive now needs expertise of its children abroad