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p The countries of West Asia (they are sometimes referred to as the countries of the Near and Middle East) and North Africa comprise a large region of the developing world. Though in area this region is almost twice as big as Southeast and South Asia, its population is a quarter of the latter.

p Centuries ago seats of high ancient culture and civilisation appeared in this region which adjoins the Mediterranean and Red seas. The peoples of West Asia and Northeast and North Africa maintained close economic, political and cultural contacts.

p With the advent of imperialism the colonialists forcibly imposed their rule on many countries and nations of West Asia and Northeast and North Africa. In the early years of this century there were only five formally independent monarchies in this part of the world: Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey in West Asia, and Ethiopia and Morocco in Africa. Later Morocco became a French protectorate.

p The natural resources of West Asia and North Africa have always attracted imperialist invaders. The most valuable mineral resources are the extremely rich proven deposits of oil and gas (about four-fifths of the oil deposits of the capitalist world): annual oil output in this part of the world has exceeded 920 million tons. By destructively exploiting the oil fields the western monopolies are reaping thousands of millions of dollars in profits. The annual profits of the US monopolies alone are estimated at $ 2,000 million.

An important role is played by the advantageous geographic position of the countries of West Asia and North Africa. All of them, with the exception of Afghanistan, have coastlines facing either the Mediterranean, Black, Red or Arabian 166 seas with their world shipping routes, of which the most important is the Mediterranean route linking Gibraltar, Suez and Aden.

WEST ASIA

p Though the imperialists are doing their utmost to hold on to their positions in this important strategic region of the world they are, nevertheless, retreating in the face of the powerful upsurge of the national-liberation movement of the Arab peoples. Syria and Lebanon, former French colonies, became independent in 1943. As a result of the rout of fascist Italy Libya became independent in 1951. Sudan, Morocco and Tunisia won state sovereignty in 1956. In 1960 the Republic of Cyprus and in 1961 Kuwait joined the family of young national states. In 1962 Algeria became an independent democratic state. Independent South Yemen was established at the close of 1968. Qatar and Bahrein became independent in 1971 and then the United Arab Emirates also won independence.

p The majority of the countries of West Asia and North Africa are young national states which appeared as a result of the collapse of the colonial system. But fragments of this system still exist. The population of the dependent countries is fighting for freedom and independence.

p All these countries are searching for ways of achieving full economic and political independence in conditions of intensifying class struggle. In some pro-imperialist elements are gaining the upper hand. In an effort to overthrow progressive regimes in the Middle East the imperialists unleashed an Israeli aggression against the Arab countries in 1967. However, they failed to gain their aims. The peoples of the world are supporting the Arabs in their just struggle against the imperialist invaders.

p Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Cyprus, Kuwait, Tunisia and Morocco are pursuing a policy of positive neutrality and non-participation in imperialist military blocs.

p A number of countries, including the Syrian Arab Republic, the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Algerian People’s Democratic Republic and the Republic of Iraq, are putting through socio-economic reforms to undermine the foundations 167 of feudalism and suppress monopoly capitalism and neocolonialism.

p The government of the Libyan Arab Republic established as a result of a revolutionary coup in 1969 announced its adherence to the ideas of social progress. The revolution in Somalia in 1969 resulted in the formation of the Somali Democratic Republic whose government is drawing up a programme of economic and social reforms designed to counter all forms of neocolonialism.

Though the countries of West Asia and North Africa have much in common as regards their history and the contemporary situation, some groups of them have their distinctive features. Among the countries of the region under review a prominent place is occupied by Afghanistan, Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria.

Area and Population of Some Countries of West Asia Area (sq. km.) Population All countries of West Asia 6,800,000 118,000,000 of which: Afghanistan 650,000 17,100,000 Iran 1,650,000 28,700,000 Turkey 800,000 35,200,000 Iraq 450,000 9,400,000 Syria 200,000 5,400,000

AFGHANISTAN

p Afghanistan is a mountainous country bordering on the USSR, Iran, Pakistan and the Chinese People’s Republic. The shortest routes from the USSR to India and from Europe to Asia pass through Afghanistan and Pakistan.

p In 1969 the people of Afghanistan observed the 50th anniversary of their country’s independence. The USSR and 168 Afghanistan have what can be qualified as traditional goodneighbourly relations of co-operation.

p Mutually advantageous co-operation stimulates the Afghan economy which is in the hands of both the private and state sector. Having completed its second five-year plan Afghanistan is fulfilling the third five-year plan (1967-1972) which envisages priority development of agriculture, irrigation, mining and industry.

p Afghanistan is building a large number of industrial projects and developing the transport and irrigation system with the economic and technical assistance of the USSR. For example, the Soviet Union has helped to build a key western motor road linking Turgundi and Kandahar and the TransHindu Kush highway connecting Shirkhan on the Amu Darya with the capital Kabul which shortened the route between Kabul and the northern provinces. Soviet specialists helped to explore and launch the development of oil and gas deposits in the north of the country.

p The new industrial projects are strengthening Afghanistan’s economy, but agriculture is still the main branch of the economy and accounts for 90 per cent of the employed population. The crops are cereals, mainly wheat, rice, corn and barley. Afghanistan is rich in fruits and grapes. With sheepbreeding as the principal branch of stock-breeding Afghanistan is a major producer of karakul, sheepskin and wool.

Economic development is accompanied by a growth in the cultural level of villages and towns. Ten per cent of the population live in towns. Kabul, the capital and the nation’s biggest industrial and cultural centre, has over 450,000 inhabitants. It has a polytechnical institute and other higher educational establishments where national specialists are trained.

IRAN

p Iran occupies a central position in the Middle East. In the north (both on land and along the Caspian Sea) Iran borders on the USSR, in the south the country has a coastline facing the Indian Ocean. The Trans-Iranian Railway connecting Bandar Shah on the Caspian Sea with Bandar Shahpur on the Persian Gulf provides an outlet to the Indian 169 Ocean. Iran is a connecting link between her western neighbours—Turkey and Iraq—and her eastern neighbours—Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in general is situated along important international communication lines.

p Iran’s ruling circles have initiated agrarian and other reforms in an effort to overcome the country’s backwardness and promote her economy. The agrarian reform undermined the positions of the wealthy landowners and inaugurated the involved process of capitalist development in the rural areas. The annual cereal harvest (mainly wheat) ranges from 4 to 5 million tons. But there is not enough wheat to meet the domestic requirements and certain quantities of it are imported.

p Oil production is the chief branch of industry. Iran’s oil deposits are estimated at 9,000 million tons and the annual output is about 190 million tons. The biggest oil-producing country in the Middle East, Iran accounts for about 25 per cent of the region’s total oil output. Khuzistan in the southwest is Iran’s chief oil region. South Iranian oil is piped to the capital Teheran in the north and from there to the northwest (Resht) and east (Meshed). The bulk of the oil which is shipped out of the country by tankers goes to advanced capitalist countries. An international oil consortium, an association of the biggest western oil monopolies in which the leading part is played by US oil companies, is in control of Iranian oil.

p With foreign assistance Iran is building up motor vehicle assembly, tractor, petrochemical, cement and metallurgical industries. A metallurgical plant has been built in Isfahan with Soviet aid. The Soviet Union and Iran are co-operating in the hydroelectric power projects on the Araxes that forms a border between the two countries. The Trans-Iranian gas pipeline transporting Iranian gas to the Soviet Union has been put into operation. The USSR is helping Iran to reconstruct and electrify her railways and to deepen her Caspian ports.

The developing co-operation with the USSR and other socialist countries is strengthening Iran’s positions in her relations with the capitalist countries that are in control of individual branches of the country’s economy.

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TURKEY

p Turkey lies partly in West Asia and partly in Southeast Europe. Turkey in Asia is separated from Turkey in Europe (Eastern Thrace) by the straits of the Black Sea (the Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles).

p Modern Turkey is experiencing a difficult period. Concerned about the low level of the country’s economic development the Turkish public is searching for a solution to acute economic and social problems.

p In recent years Turkey has been endeavouring to lessen her dependence on imperialist powers by promoting economic and cultural relations with neighbouring countries, including the socialist states. Major importance is being attached to the re-establishment of goodneighbourly relations between Turkey and the USSR which had been initiated at the time when the great Lenin stood at the head of the Soviet Union and Turkey was guided by her outstanding statesman Kemal Atatiirk. The 1972 Declaration on the principles of goodneighbourly relations between the USSR and Turkey strengthens the co-operation between the two countries.

p The Soviet Union is helping Turkey to build a number of key industrial enterprises, including the country’s first large aluminium factory and an oil refinery on the coast of the Aegean Sea, and a metallurgical plant in Iskenderun on the Mediterranean coast.

p Key branches of industry are owned by the state, and industrial production already accounts for approximately a third of the national income.

p Chromite is the main export mineral. Turkey also produces copper ore, manganese, complex and other ores, about 8 million tons of coal and over 3 million tons of oil. The Karabiik Iron and Steel Complex uses local iron ore.

p Locomotive, carriage and ship repair works and aircraft assembly factories make up the bulk of the engineering industry’s capacities. There is a fairly big cement industry (annual output over 4 million tons). The output of electricity is approaching 7,000 million kwh a year. The large Keban Hydroelectric Station is under construction on the Euphrates.

p But Turkey’s economy is based on agriculture which provides a livelihood for 75 per cent of the population and yields 171 close to two-thirds of her gross national product. Agriculture is extensive and is still fettered by feudal and semi-feudal relations. Over 66 per cent of the arable land is in the hands of landowners and kulaks. The overwhelming majority of the peasants have small plots or none at all, rent land from the landowners on extremely heavy terms. The productivity of agriculture is low.

p The principal crops are wheat, barley, corn and rice. The annual cereal harvest averages from 14 to 15 million tons, of which approximately 10 million are wheat. Sugar beet, cotton and tobacco are important industrial crops. Large quantities of grapes, citrus fruits and olives are growing in the western, maritime part of Turkey. In some eastern regions pastoral sheep-breeding is the principal branch of agriculture. High-quality wool from mohair goats and other animal by-products are partly exported.

Land hungry or landless peasants—farm labourers and metayers—comprise the majority of the population. Falling into ruin the peasants leave their villages and swell the numerous contingents of the unemployed.

IRAQ

p Iraq is situated at the intersection of international air and overland routes linking Iran with Syria, the Mediterranean area with the Asian hinterland, and the west with the east which have replaced the old caravan trails.

p Using these caravan trails Seljukian Turks, the Mongol hordes and the tribes of Southern Arabia invaded Iraq in their time. Arab nomads settled down in the fertile plain between the Tigris and the Euphrates and took up agriculture. But long before these ethnic groups and races merged into what is now the population of Iraq, one of the most ancient seats of civilisation appeared in Mesopotamia in the south of the country. Today, however, only the ruins of Babylon and Borsippa and other cities which appeared on Iraqi soil long before our era, remind us of the former glory of that civilisation.

p Iraq’s climate and physical environment have not changed since. Hot and long summers combined with irrigated farming ensure bumper harvests of rice, cotton and other crops 172 cultivated in fertile Mesopotamia. Marshy in places the valleys of the Tigris and the Euphrates and the valley of deep Shatt-el-Arab, formed as a result of their confluence, are surrounded by deserts. Deposits of oil, Iraq’s principal mineral wealth, have been discovered in Upper Mesopotamia which comes right up to the spurs of the Iranian uplands.

p Iraq’s wealth, just as the wealth of the neighbouring young independent states, was a source of enrichment for the colonialists. The British, who had complete control over Iraq’s economy, particularly valued her oil which they shipped to the British Isles. For many years Iraq was an agrarian stockbreeding country.

p Determined to preserve their domination over the country the British colonialists fomented national and religious strife among the population of Iraq. Inciting the Shiite Arabs, who comprise the majority of the population, against the Sunnite Kurds, one of its national minorities, the British hoped to weaken Iraq and facilitate their oppression of the Iraqi people.  [172•*  The fratricidal war between the Arabs and the Kurds continued for nine years even after 1958, the year when the mandated Hashimite Kingdom was overthrown and Iraq became independent as a result of a mighty upsurge of the national liberation movement. The dire heritage of colonialism handicapped every aspect of the country’s economic and social development.

p In this connection the peaceful settlement of the Kurdish problem played an inestimable role in consolidating Iraq’s sovereignty.

p A matter of decisive importance for Iraq’s progress along the new road is the scope and depth of the socio-economic changes designed to cut short the intrigues of the imperialists, Zionism and reactionary feudal elements.

p Iraq is an agrarian country. Nearly four-fifths of the population are peasants, most of them without land of their own. The agrarian reform is proceeding slowly and the feudal lords still enjoy considerable influence in the country.

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p The complete abolition of feudalism, distribution of the land among peasants and the introduction of measures to encourage the establishment of agricultural co-operatives would open broad prospects for promoting the growth of agricultural productive forces.

p Oil production (75 million tons) is the main and very promising branch of industry. Iraq is the fourth biggest oil producer among the countries of the Middle East. Only a small portion of Iraqi oil is distilled at refineries in Kirkuk and Haditha. Most of it is piped to the Mediterranean ports of Tripoli and Baniyas for shipment to western countries. Foreign oil monopolies are amassing huge profits from the extraction and sales of Iraqi oil.

During the past few years Iraq has been taking steps to limit the operations of foreign monopolies in the oil industry. The state is taking over an increasing share of the oil extraction and profits of the foreign monopolies, limiting their rights of developing new deposits and is laying the foundation for a state-owned oil industry. A hosiery and knitwear factory, a factory manufacturing insulation materials, the first of its kind in West Asia, a bicycle, pharmaceutical, canned food and other industrial enterprises have been built. Railways and ports are being reconstructed and a national tanker fleet is coming into being. Following an anti- imperialist course, the Republic of Iraq is strengthening its independence. The Soviet-Iraqi Treaty of Friendship and Co- operation signed in 1972 creates favourable conditions for Iraq’s further progressive development.

SYRIA

p The Syrian Arab Republic is situated south of Turkey in the zone of the Mediterranean subtropics. But neither a favourable climate nor her heroic past have so far helped her to develop into a flourishing country. The reason for this has been the foreign yoke and colonial domination to which she has been subject for centuries.

p In recent years the state has assumed control over the majority of industrial enterprises and now the state sector accounts for over 80 per cent of the total volume of industrial production.

p Under the current agrarian reform the excess land 174 confiscated from the landowners is transferred to the peasants. Supply and sales co-operatives are being established in the villages. As a result there is a steady increase in the production of cereals (wheat and barley) and particularly in industrial crops (cotton). Syria is a land of pastoral animal- breeding (sheep, goats, cattle and camels). Cotton, tobacco, citrus fruits and other agricultural products are exported in large quantities.

p Syria has given priority development to the light industry which produces fabrics, yarn, wool, carpets, tobacco, food and other commodities. The capital, Damascus (population over 600,000), and the Mediterranean ports of Latakia and Baniyas, are the chief industrial centres.

p The USSR and other socialist countries are helping the Syrian Arab Republic to build a number of industrial, irrigation and other projects which will transform its economy. Considerable qualitative changes are expected to take place following the completion of a dam and large hydroelectric power scheme under construction on the Euphrates. They will almost double the irrigated area and provide cities and villages with electricity.

The Soviet Union is assisting Syria in exploring and developing oil, gas and other mineral deposits, building railways and motor roads and reconstructing her sea ports.

SOUTH YEMEN

p The People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen is situated in the south of the Arabian Peninsula. The republic appeared as a result of the struggle of the Yemeni people against the British colonialists who oppressed the country for nearly 130 years and turned the naval base of Aden into a citadel of their sway in the East.

p In area (about 290,000 sq. km.) the Yemen Republic is 10 times bigger than Albania, but has a smaller population.

p Agriculture (cotton-growing and sheep-breeding) is the principal branch of the economy. Aden is an important port and industrial centre.

The nationalisation of the lands of former sultans and the introduction of other socio-economic reforms is promoting 175 the economic and social growth of the republic which is receiving substantial assistance from the USSR and other socialist countries.

North Africa

The countries of the Arab East are situated in North Africa. Two of them, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Libyan Arab Republic, together with the Syrian Arab Republic in Asia, make up a federation of Arab republics which they have established to overcome the consequences of the Israeli aggression and to carry out democratic reforms. Algeria and other North African countries are also advancing along the road of social reforms.

Area and Population of North African Countries Area (sq. km.) Population All North African coun- tries 10,200,000 115,000,000 of which: Arab Republic of Egypt 1,000,000 30,100,000 Algeria 2,400,000 13,500,000 Sudan 2,500,000 15,700,000 Libya 1,760,000 1,900,000 Somalia 640,000 2,700,000 Ethiopia 1,200,000 24,800,000

ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT

p The Arab Republic of Egypt is a large developing country (area: 1 million sq. km.). Occupying the northeast corner of Africa and the Peninsula of Sinai, it is both an African and Asian state. It has taken the road of non- capitalist development and has made considerable progress in this direction.

p Egypt, a land with an ancient civilisation, holds an important geographic position on the junction of Africa and 176 Asia at the intersection of international east-west sea and air communications. The Suez Canal, the shortest waterway between the Atlantic and Indian oceans passes through its territory.

p As a result of the 1967 Israeli aggression against Egypt the Suez Canal was put out of commission and all shipping through it was blocked.

p Years of British colonial domination greatly retarded Egypt’s economic and cultural growth. In 1952, an anti- imperialist revolution deposed the monarchy, undermined the positions of British colonial rule in the country and opened the road for Egypt’s independent progressive development.

p The development of the anti-monarchistic revolution into a national democratic revolution wrought great socio- economic changes in the country. In 1961 and 1962 the government decreed the nationalisation of banks, heavy industry, transport and trade and established the state sector which assumed key positions in the country’s developing economy and now yields a half of her national income. The agrarian reform, under which the land was transferred to those who till it, struck a heavy blow at feudalism and enhanced the peasants’ role in moulding Egypt’s future.

p Industrialisation, now underway with the assistance of the Soviet Union and other socialist states, is gradually modifying the structure of the economy and augmenting the role of industry. Industry has not yet acquired a leading position in the economy, but is developing rapidly, yielding a large part of the national income.

p Since the revolution, Egypt has built 800 industrial enterprises, created its own metallurgical, oil, chemical, engineering and other industries and increased the industrial output severalfold.

p The relatively developed textile and food industries are producing increasing quantities of cotton and silk fabrics, tobacco, sugar, cottonseed oil and other commodities. The emerging heavy industry is coming to play a decisive role in the economy. The Helwan Metallurgical Complex now under construction will become the core of the iron and steel industry. Factories manufacturing railway carriages, machine-tools and other items out of local metal are already 177 in operation in Helwan near Cairo. Egypt also has automobile assembly, bicycle and refrigerator factories and shipyards.

p The recently established chemical and oil industries produce mineral fertiliser liquid fuel and other oil products out of local raw materials. With the assistance of the Soviet Union Egypt has become the biggest producer of antibiotics and other medicines in the Arab East. Oil production is mounting and the country’s fuel and power base is being strengthened. The Israeli aggression has temporarily deprived Egypt of its oilfields in Sinai but oil production is increasing in the Western Desert and at other new deposits and now amounts to approximately 20 million tons. Steadily increasing oil production Egypt is turning into a major oil producer in the Middle East.

p Built with Soviet assistance the Aswan Hydroelectric Power Complex on the Nile has become the backbone of the power-engineering industry and the entire economy. The complex includes a Ill-metre-high dam, one of the world’s largest hydroelectric stations (2,100,000 kw) and a huge storage lake which extends for 500 km and holds 160 cu. km. of water.

p It is impossible to overestimate the economic significance of the Aswan scheme which annually supplies the capital, Cairo (population about 5 million), Alexandria and other industrial cities with approximately 10,000 million kwh of electricity. Their enterprises and construction sites employ over 20,000 specialists, former fellaheen who acquired various professions during the construction of the Aswan scheme. Finally, the man-made sea with its colossal fresh water reserves has rid the fertile Nile valley of droughts and floods and by irrigating an area of 1,400,000 jeddans (1 feddan=0.42 hectares) has increased the cultivated area by 33 per cent.

p The Aswan station is the first of a series of hydroelectric power stations which Egypt intends to build on the Nile. In this land of sunshine and a warm climate the fellaheen take in two harvests a year and are increasing the output of diverse agricultural products.

p Fine long-staple cotton is the main crop and a key item of export. Sesamum, sugar cane, groundnuts and fruits are cultivated for domestic needs and for export Cereals, 178 however, are imported since Egypt is not self-sufficient in wheat, rice, corn and barley.

The further consolidation of the military and economic potential of Egypt is directly connected with the further development of socio-economic reforms and the strengthening of its social and state systems. Stiffening their rebuff to the continuing Israeli aggression the people of Egypt are at the same time making headway in economic and cultural development, despite the temporary occupation of a part of their country. An important role is played by the SovietEgyptian Treaty of Friendship and Co-operation in facilitating Egypt’s efforts to carry through socialist changes.

THE SUDAN

p The Sudan is a country of great contrasts and complicated social and economic problems. Her physical features, population structure and economy are directly contingent on her geographic position.

p A vast area in the north is covered by the Libyan and Nubian deserts. In this arid zone precipitation is extremely low and there are places where there is no rain for years at a stretch. The southern part of the country lies in the zone of the equatorial monsoon climate and has high-grassy savannahs with oases abounding in valuable trees.

p The Nile, which is formed at Khartoum (nearly 350,000 inhabitants) by the confluence of the White and the Blue Nile, traverses the Sudan from southern to northern borders. Almost the entire population is concentrated on irrigated lands of the Nile basin which constitutes less than three per cent of the total area.

p Arabs and Nubians make up two-thirds of the population. In the south there are the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk, Bari and other numerous Negro people engaged in stock-breeding, hunting and fishing.

p The present-day Sudan inherited religious and tribal strife and a backward economy from the British colonialists. Sudanese economy is based on irrigated farming specialising in the production of cotton, sesamum, groundnuts and other export crops. The country is not self-sufficient in cereals and animal products.

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Mining (gold, manganese, mica, sea salt), the processing of agricultural raw materials and handicrafts constitute the foundation of the industry.

LIBYA

p Libya (1,760,000 sq.km.) is one of the biggest African countries. But only approximately 0.5 per cent of her territory is cultivated, the rest being occupied by deserts and semi-deserts where very rich oilfields have been discovered. At the beginning of 1971, their reserves have been estimated at 3,800 million tons, which is equal to twothirds of the proven oil resources of all the African countries.

p A vast country, Libya has a population of less than 2,000,000, mostly Arabs and Berbers, concentrated along a narrow strip of the Mediterranean coast. In the south there are the nomadic Tuaregs and some Negroid tribes. Over 50 per cent of the population live in Tripoli (350,000 inhabitants) and other towns.

p Libya’s economic backwardness is due to a prolonged period of foreign rule. Agriculture, enmeshed in feudal relations, is stagnant. The principal industry is oil extraction (about 160 million tons in 1970) and there are small enterprises processing agricultural raw materials. As a result almost all essential commodities are imported. Oil is exported to western countries.

The victory of the revolution in September 1969 and the proclamation of the Libyan Arab Republic inaugurated a period of crucial socio-economic reforms. The state has established control over the activity of foreign oil monopolies. An industrialisation plan is being drawn up and Libya is expanding her relations with progressive Arab states. The workers’ minimum wage has been doubled and the living standard is rising. The country is gradually consolidating her internal and international positions. Overcoming difficulties and frustrating the schemes of the reaction new Libya is confidently advancing along the road of social and economic progress.

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ALGERIA

p Algeria, a French colony in the recent past, and now a people’s democratic republic, occupies an important place among the young national states.

p A north African state, Algeria is situated in the direct proximity of the countries of South Europe. She has an approximately 2,000-kilometre-long coastline with convenient harbours facing the Mediterranean. Overland routes across the Sahara connect Algerian ports with the neighbouring republics of Mali and Niger and other countries of West and Central Africa. Numerous air routes over her territory connect Western Europe and Africa.

p Algeria was a French colony for more than 130 years. The French colonialists established large capitalist farms, some of which occupied tens of thousands of hectares of the most fertile Algerian land confiscated from the native population. Algerians deprived of land were forced to hire themselves out to the European colonists and local feudal lords. Shortly before Algeria became independent an estimated one million Europeans owned almost 3,000,000 hectares of fertile land in the country. French capital held key positions in the economy of Algeria which was an agrarian and raw materials source of metropolitan France.

p After the Second World War, in 1954, the Algerian people launched an armed struggle against the French colonialists whose victorious conclusion eight years later resulted in the establishment of an independent Algerian republic. The colonialists withdrew from Algeria leaving behind a backward and dislocated economy and mass unemployment.

p The Algerian authorities nationalised the mining, engineering, food and other industries and also commercial firms, banks, transport companies and all the land owned by the colonists. The expropriated farms, estates and a part of the industrial enterprises were turned over to self- government committees made up of workers, veteran liberation fighters and toiling peasants.

p Today the self-governing sector in agriculture embraces 2,000 farms and about 2,700,000 hectares of cultivated land which yield over 50 per cent of the agricultural output. The 181 self-governing sector in industry has more than 500 enterprises.

p The state sector which is being established in industry in addition to the self-governing sector, embraces more than two-thirds of the total number of the nationalised mines, food industry enterprises and some enterprises of the chemical and building industry. The socialised sector accounts for 80 per cent of the value of the total (excluding oil) industrial production, 60 per cent of the agricultural output and the entire freight turnover.

p Foreign capital is still present in the oil and gas industry. Algeria annually produces about 50 million tons of oil and over 3,000 million cu.m. of gas, the greater part of which is exported to Western Europe. In the oil and gas industry an increasing role is being played by a national company engaged in prospecting for oil and gas and their extraction, and the transportation and sales of oil products.

p The adoption of the four-year economic development plan for 1970-1973 is playing an important part in stimulating industrialisation which is vital for Algeria’s economy. A great deal of attention is being paid to the development of the key oil and gas, metallurgical, chemical and electricpower industries.

p Algeria is creating her economy with foreign scientific and technological aid, much of which is furnished by socialist countries. About 80 projects, more than 60 of which are industrial enterprises, are going up in Algeria with Soviet scientific, technological and economic assistance. Soviet specialists are helping to put up a steel smelting shop at the iron and steel works in Anaba and to build dams across rivers. They are prospecting for oil, gas and other minerals, and training national personnel for Algeria’s advancing economy.

The building of a new life in Algeria encounters certain difficulties. A complicated situation prevails in the private sector in agriculture which is still dominated by social contrasts between the landless peasants and wealthy landowners and where only a far-reaching agrarian reform could bring about the necessary socio-economic changes.