When Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika attended the second South-Africa-Algeria binational commission (BNC) in October 2001, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) was being finalised and was still being referred to as the New Africa Initiative, or MAP.

There was a strong sense of optimism about Africa's emerging north-south alliance, based, in the main, on the “special relationship” that has developed between South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Bouteflika - both of whom were central figures in the drafting of MAP.

This relationship had deep historical roots given that Algeria was a strong supporter of the banned African National Congress during the anti-apartheid struggle. Bouteflika, who was then the President of the United Nations General Assembly, guided through the resolutions designed at isolating the National Party government.

At that meeting, Mbeki said “despite the physical distance imposed upon us by geography, the relationship between our two countries is an intimate one, going back many decades to the struggle of the African peoples for national liberation and freedom from colonial rule”.

But the business experience over the last few years has not always been reflective of this political intimacy - it also highlights the fact that the Nepad reality is still a far cry from the vision. In fact, business representatives at the fourth BNC, which took place in Pretoria this week, were far from complimentary about the situation.

Speaking in Pretoria earlier this week, Aspen Pharmacare's Stavros Nicolau reported that nontariff barriers had forced the South African company to close shop in Algeria.

He said that, between 1998 and 2002, the company had done nearly $6-billion-worth of business in the North African country, but that had subsequently fallen to zero and Aspen had taken a decision to deregister its Algerian subsidiary.

He said volume restrictions had led to an erratic and unpredictable trading environment, which had made the continuation of operations unfeasible.

Similarly, a South African water industry representative said that while projects had been identified as well as finance for those projects, Algerian tendering hurdles had made it impossible for the South African companies to invest.

Other delegates suggested that the business culture was foreign to South African firms and that the dominance of State enterprises in Algeria made entry difficult.

Several businesspeople called for the establishment of a mechanism to unblock the difficulties in doing business in both countries.

Mbeki, who had no prepared speech and responded to the comments raised from the floor, said that he was keenly interested to see progress and said that the problems had to be addressed.

He called on the business forum to create an instrument for dealing with the challenges and even volunteered to serve on the committee if that was what was required to unblock the challenges.

Bouteflika said there were many business opportunities and said his administration was undertaking “economic reforms to remove the last blockages for the development of our economy”.

“There is a political will to develop the Algerian economy and build a partnership between South Africa and Algeria. It's for this forum to produce practical solutions on how the two countries should do business,” Bouteflika told the business forum.

Yesterday, which was the final day of the forum, saw the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Business Unity South Africa.