AAPI (formerly ANDI) Algeria: the Algerian Investment Promotion Agency

Tax advantages

Law no. 22-18 provides for three incentive regimes (article 24). The advantages depend on prior registration of the investment with the competent one-stop desk (article 25):

• Sector regime (article 26): mines and quarries; agriculture, aquaculture and fishing; industry, food industry, pharmaceutical industry and petrochemicals; services and tourism; new and renewable energies; knowledge economy and information and communication technologies.
• Zone regime (article 28): localities in the High Plateaux, the South and the Far South; localities whose development calls for particular State support; localities with natural resources to be developed. The list of localities is set by regulation.
• Structuring investment regime (article 30): investments with a high potential for creating wealth and jobs, able to increase the attractiveness of the territory and to create a knock-on effect on economic activity for sustainable development. The qualifying criteria are set by regulation.
• Realisation phase (article 27, repeated by articles 29 and 31): exemption from customs duties on imported goods that go directly into carrying out the investment, VAT franchise on goods and services imported or acquired locally that go directly into it, and exemption from the property tax on real estate for ten (10) years from the date of acquisition, among other advantages listed in article 27.
• Operating phase: IBS exemption of three (3) to five (5) years under the sector regime, five (5) to ten (10) years under the zone regime and for structuring investments, from the date operations begin (articles 27, 29 and 31, JO no. 50 of 28 July 2022, p. 10). The duration is determined on the basis of evaluation grids set by regulation (article 33).
• Those same articles also carried an exemption from the taxe sur l'activité professionnelle: that tax was abolished by article 14 of the 2024 Finance Act, which repealed articles 217 to 231 of the CIDTA, so the exemption no longer has an object.

Registering the investment

Registration is what opens access to the advantages of law no. 22-18. It is not a condition for creating the company. Executive decree no. 22-299 of 8 September 2022 (JO no. 60 of 18 September 2022, pp. 12 to 14) sets the procedure:

• To benefit from the advantages, the investment must be registered before it is carried out with the competent one-stop desk (law no. 22-18, article 25, JO no. 50 of 28 July 2022, p. 9; executive decree no. 22-299, article 3).
• Registration is evidenced by an attestation, delivered on the spot, together with the list of goods and services eligible for the advantages (law no. 22-18, article 25; decree no. 22-299, article 5).
• The request follows the model set by the decree, with the list of goods and services that go directly into carrying out the investment. It is filed with the one-stop desk or on the digital investor platform, by the investor in person or by a representative holding a power of attorney (decree no. 22-299, article 3).
• For a creation investment, article 6 asks only for the identity document of the investor or of the authorised representative. For an extension or a rehabilitation, it also asks for the trade register extract, the NIF and the tax balance sheet of the last closed financial year. A structuring investment adds a technical and economic study (article 7).
• Article 13 states that actually using the advantages depends on registration in the trade register and on the NIF being issued.
• The digital investor platform, which the Agency manages, allows all procedures to be dematerialised and the formalities linked to the investment to be completed online (law no. 22-18, article 23, p. 9; executive decree no. 26-153, article 39, JO no. 31 of 28 April 2026, p. 12).

One-stop desks

Executive decree no. 26-153 (JO no. 31 of 28 April 2026, pp. 8, 9 and 11) organises the one-stop desks set up at the level of the Agency:

• A one-stop desk for large projects and foreign investments, with national competence, and decentralised one-stop desks, with local competence (article 17).
• They are the investor's single point of contact: reception and information, registration of investments, management and follow-up of files, support with administrations and bodies, issuing of the decisions, authorisations and documents linked to the project (article 18).
• They bring together in one place the Agency's staff and permanent representatives of the national trade register centre, the tax administration, the national domain, urban planning, the environment, civil protection, energy, Sonelgaz, the labour, employment and social security bodies, and banks and financial institutions. Customs appoints a permanent representative at the one-stop desk for large projects and non-permanent representatives in the decentralised desks (article 19).
• The services may be organised into « specialised facilitation hubs »: company creation; registration of investment projects; tax, customs and state-land matters; financial support; urban planning and operation; connection to networks; social security and employment; sector authorisations and approvals (article 20).
• The tax administration's representative handles the formalities for opening the tax file and assigning the NIF, and signs and issues the related documents on the spot (article 27).
• The authorisations and documents needed to carry out the project are issued at the one-stop desks within fifteen (15) days at most from receipt of the file, twenty (20) days for the prior approval to create classified establishments of the first three categories (article 30).

Useful platforms

• Official AAPI (formerly ANDI) website: https://aapi.dz