What's the purpose of this commentary? I do not get it; moreover, the commentary is quite simplistic. Forget the throwing out of ironies here, the Chinese are not constructing a mosque for the Chinese, they are constructing for the Algerians. China is involved in Algeria for one reason: Algeria's oil. Boutef fully understands that Algeria has grown increasingly more conservative and building a mosque serves the purpose of appeasement to this end. What remains to be seen, is whether Boutef will require the CSCEC to employ Algerian laborers, which if he does, will be a good thing. Even in the U.S., the current Administration and politicians are calling for public work programs like this. There is no difference, except the notion that Algeria is building a "mosque". It's rather egotistical to think that a mosque is purely about vanity when the U.S. is wasting billions on failed companies and questionable "shovel ready" infrastructure projects.

The disguise of the argument under the context that CSCEC is found to be corrupt, is meaningless. There are plenty of countries, to include Western ones, who are more than willing to be "corrupt" in getting projects. There is no difference between creating rules for legal corruption and those who choose to do "business" as they always have done. It just reinforces our guilty sensibilities to legalize how we do business.

I was finally able to see this movie. I would say that it was the league of Too Big to Fail. Both approach the financial crisis in a similar manner – a compressed space of time in which a decision has to be made, an ensemble of actors, and some general exposition into the issues involved. Both also follow the general Law & Order-esque procedural in which the focus is the “situation” (here, a boatload of toxic assets) rather than the personal lives of the characters. In both Margin Call and Too Big to Fail, there isn’t much of a backstory other than the essentials, and a few other tidbits.

Most of the action in Margin Call takes place in the early morning hours. It begins around 10-11pm when the junior analyst stumbles on the problem, and generally ends at 6am when the executive decisions are made. So, there are a few scenes of people in business-suits mingled in with darkened corridors, New York City in the wee hours, and the cleaning staff.

At focus here, are the CDOs. Unlike AIG whose problem was credit default swaps, the fictional firm in the film had CDOs – collateralized debt obligations. I am not a financial analyst, so I can’t say with certainty that I know the difference between the two, but the gist that I get is that CDSs is something like insurance (eg – we pay if there a default. This is where AIG may have got into trouble, as they were “insuring” these loans) and CDOs are basically packaged loans traded in the market. The fictional firm in the movie (MBS, probably a wordplay on the actual toxic assets that were going sour) were in the business of trading these CDOs. However, my understanding is that the crux is the same for both CDOs and CDSs: both contained subprime, risky loans that were being defaulted in greater numbers than were assumed.

Anyway, pretty good. There is some dialogue in the film that was probably written with some retrospective – a film made in 2011 looking back to 2008. Although some probably did have the foresight to see how dumping a massive load of toxic assets would have on the market, it would have been somewhat difficult during those early mornings to know it would have affected the ordinary person, outside of the office buildings on The Street.

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Au cours de ces dernières années, le secteur de la construction en Algerie a connu un véritable regain d’activité, porté par un généreux programme d’investissement financé grâce aux importants revenus du commerce d’hydrocarbures. Les nouveaux projets de construction d’autoroutes, de ports, de tramways, de sites industriels et de logements ont tous contribué à la croissance soutenue du secteur, et cette tendance ne risque pas de changer de sitôt, suite à la clôture du processus d’appel d’offres pour la construction d’une mosquée, qui devrait compter parmi les plus grandes du monde.

Bouabdallah Ghlamallah, ministre des Affaires religieuses, annoncé le 22 août dernier que le gouvernement avait pré-qualifié deux consortiums et une société de BTP pour le principal contrat, à savoir la construction d'une nouvelle mosquée colossale dotée du plus haut minaret au monde.

Au total, 15 dossiers ont été examinés ; parmi les trois candidatures retenues figurent celles d’un consortium composé de la société italo-libanaise Astaldi et de la société Arabian Construction Company, basée au Liban ; du groupement hispano-algérien COSIDER-FCC et ETRHB Haddad, qui a soumis un dossier commun ; et de China State Construction.

La nouvelle mosquée, vouée à devenir la troisième plus grande au monde après les mosquées de la Mecque et de Médine, en Arabie saoudite, sera érigée à Mohammadia, à la périphérie est d’Alger. D’une superficie de 20 hectares, le complexe pourra accueillir 120 000 fidèles, et sera dominé en son centre par une tour de 300 mètres, la plus haute du monde.

Le montant de l’investissement requis pour la construction de la mosquée n’a pas encore été rendu public ; d’après les premières estimations, ce coût devrait avoisiner les 500 millions d’euros, alors que les rapports ultérieurs évoquent un montant maximal de 975 millions d’euros.

Compte tenu de l'investissement nécessaire et de l'ampleur du projet, l’appel d’offres a été limité aux seules sociétés comptant plus de 2 000 employés permanents et affichant un chiffre d’affaires annuel d’au moins un milliard d’euros. Ces critères de sélection rigoureux visaient également à garantir que les sociétés qui rempliraient les conditions requises seraient en mesure d'achever le projet dans les délais, sans contrainte financière ou matérielle, une préoccupation qui met en lumière certaines des difficultés rencontrées dans le cadre d’autres projets de construction en Algérie.

Les prérequis imposés aux candidats s’inscrivent dans le cadre d’un objectif plus vaste du gouvernement : renforcer les capacités et les normes dans le secteur.

Le gouvernement s’est attelé à la modernisation des réglementations applicables au secteur de la construction, en mettant notamment en œuvre des procédures d’exécution plus strictes. Une nouvelle loi inspirée des législations américaine et européenne, visant à renforcer les normes de sécurité parasismique, est en cours d’élaboration. Si celle-ci est adoptée, l’Algérie, située dans une zone d’activité sismique, sera le premier pays africain à adopter un cadre de gestion du risque sismique.

Par ailleurs, le pays renforce actuellement les réglementations relatives à l’aménagement urbain dans l’espoir de faire baisser le nombre d’habitations illégales et d’améliorer la coordination entre les municipalités pour résoudre certaines difficultés, notamment la surpopulation et les flux de circulation.

Le plan de développement du gouvernement pour la période 2009-2014, chiffré à 286 milliards de dollars, mettra spécifiquement l’accent sur les infrastructures : 116 milliards d’euros seront alloués aux nouveaux projets, et 96.7 milliards aux programmes existants, notamment la construction de voies ferrées, de routes, d’installations d’eau, d’établissements scolaires et de quelque 2 millions de nouveaux logements. Par conséquent, les sociétés du secteur connaissent un surcroît de travail, et les contraintes liées aux capacités génèrent d’importantes difficultés.

Dans l’ensemble du secteur de la construction, les prix des matériaux et l’offre restent des préoccupations constantes. S’agissant de l’offre, la demande d’acier est montée en flèche ces dernières années, passant de 4.2 millions de tonnes métriques (TM) en 2007 à près de 6 millions de TM en 2010. Les armatures en acier, utilisées en construction, représentent près de la moitié de cette demande. Cette forte hausse a cependant été partiellement résolue grâce à un investissement de 500 millions d’euros dans l'aciérie Arcelor-Mittal à El Hadjar. Cette enveloppe devrait permettre de rehausser la production d’acier en deux temps, pour atteindre 1.4 million de MT par an, puis 2.4 millions de MT par an au cours de la seconde phase.

Dans le segment du ciment, face à la hausse de la demande, l’État, qui répond actuellement à 65 % environ de la demande du marché par l’intermédiaire du Cement Industry Group récemment créé, a initié un projet d’investissement pour 2011-2015 dans une nouvelle cimenterie. Il espère ainsi faire progresser l’offre, actuellement établie à environ 11.5 millions de TM, à 20 millions de TM. Ce programme d’investissement vient s’ajouter aux projets de construction d’une nouvelle usine par ASEC Algérie, filiale de la société égyptienne ASEC Cement Holding. Le site, qui aura une capacité de production de 3 millions de tonnes, devrait ouvrir l'année prochaine.

Toutes ces mesures devraient permettre de dissiper certaines inquiétudes des entrepreneurs liées à l’offre, et donc aux prix, en tentant d’étendre et compléter la liste grandissante de projets de construction entrepris dans l’ensemble du pays.

Algeria: Building keeps busy

Recent years have seen a flurry of activity in Algeria’s construction sector, pushed by a generous spending programme on the back of sizeable hydrocarbons revenues. New motorways, ports, trams, industrial facilities and housing projects have all led to significant growth in the sector – and it does not look as though things are going to change any time soon, following the completion of the bidding process for what will be one of the largest mosques in the world.

On August 22, Bouabdallah Ghlamallah, the minister of religious affairs, announced that the government had prequalified two consortia and one construction firm for the main contract to build a grand new mosque with the highest minaret in the world.

In all, 15 bids were considered, with the successful three bidders including a consortium consisting of the Italian-Lebanese firm Astaldi and the Lebanon-based Arabian Construction Company; a Spanish-Algerian joint bid by COSIDER-FCC and ETRHB Haddad; and China State Construction.

The new mosque – which aims to be the third largest in the world after Saudi Arabia’s Mecca and Medina – will be located in Mohammadia, in the eastern outskirts of Algiers. The 20-ha complex will have room for 120,000 worshippers, with the centre of the complex dominated by a 300-metre tower, the world’s highest.

The amount of investment in the mosque has not yet been made public, but early estimates put the cost at around €500m, while later reports suggested €975m as the upper limit.

Given the amount of investment and the importance of the project, bidding was open only to companies with a permanent staff of more than 2000 and an annual turnover of at least €1bn. Placing the bar high was also aimed at ensuring those companies that did qualify would be able to complete the project without delays caused by financing or equipment constraints, highlighting some of the issues that other construction projects in Algeria have come up against.

The prerequisites for bidders come within the context of a broader push by the government to address capacity and standards within the sector.

The government is working on modernising regulations governing the construction industry, with more robust enforcement procedures being put in place. A new law strengthening earthquake safety standards, and based on US and European legislation, is currently in the works. The law will mark Algeria, which lies in a seismic zone, as the first African country to implement a framework for earthquake risk management.

Furthermore, the country is bolstering urban planning regulations in a bid to cut down on illegal habitations and improve coordination amongst municipalities to address issues including overcrowding and traffic flows.

Indeed, with so much of the focus of the government’s $286bn development plan on infrastructure for 2009-14 – €116bn will go to new projects and €96.7bn to existing schemes, including rail, road, water, education facilities, and around 2m new homes – these are very busy times indeed for the sector’s companies and capacity constraints have caused significant issues.

A consistent concern in the construction sector as a whole is materials prices and supply. Regarding the latter, demand for steel has rocketed in recent years, from 4.2m metric tonnes (MT) in 2007 to around 6m MT in 2010. Steel-reinforcing rods, used in construction, account for around half of this demand. This surge is, however, being addressed in part by a €500m investment in the Arcelor-Mittal steel plant at El Hajar. This should see a two-phase facelift, first boosting steel output to 1.4m MT per year, then to 2.4m MT per year in the second phase.

In cement, rising demand has led the state, which currently supplies around 65% of market demand through the recently established Cement Industry Group, to launch an investment project for 2011-15 in a new cement plant that it hopes will boost supply from around 11.5m MT to 20m MT. This comes on top of plans for another new 3m-tonne capacity facility by ASEC Algerie, a subsidiary of Egypt’s ASEC Cement Holding, that is slated to open next year.

These moves should ease some of the supply – and thus pricing – concerns for contractors, as they try to stretch and fulfil the ever-increasing list of construction projects now under way around the country.

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Yes, especially since Alaska is the first line of defense when it comes to Russia. Their Air National Guard is on duty 24/7. Don't worry about Sarah getting up to speed on Foreign policy. Truman, Carter, Reagan, Clinton and a few others had no Foreign policy training.. A new VP can be brought up to speed on foreign matters in a matter of weeks. What experience has Obama had. He hasn't even been the Govenor of a State and has had very little time in the Senate. He's been too busy running all over the Country trying to grab a nomination for Pres..

"Is rio orange war always forfait mobile inevitable ?"
MaximB

Let china build there mosque and deal with the inevitable consequences that will come with it.....I'd rather have it over there then in the ground zero site where the world trade towers used to stand...

hosting

I don't think we have lost on either. We deposed an cruel tyrant, attacked a terrorist group that murdered 3000 innocent people. Far as human rights is concerned in previous conflicts people like the terrorists we captured would have been tried by military tribunal and if found guilty executed..

"Is rio orange war always forfait sosh inevitable ?"
MaximB

He had become more radical when not president so I think he supported higher tariffs and would have joined the first World War sooner than Wilson did..

"Is rio orange war always forfait sosh inevitable ?"
MaximB