Ambassador Hocine Sahraoui of Algeria and Mrs. Sahraoui hosted a reception at Lotte Hotel in Seoul on Oct. 30, 2014 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Algerian Revolution of 1st November 1954.
There came many important guests who included, from the Korean society, Ambassador Choi Sung-joo for International Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Vice President Mrs. Kim Sun-hyang of Korean National Red Cross (NKRC, wife of the president of Kyungnam University), Adviser Mrs. Lee Sun-jin of KNRA on Women’s Volunteer Service (wife of the chairman of the Youngone Business Group), Publisher-Chairman Lee Kyung-sik of The Korea Post and Vice President Lee Myung-hoon of KOTFA.
▲Ambassador Hocine Sahraoui of Algeria (17th from right) and Ambassador Choi Sung-joo for International Security at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (15th from right) cut the celebration cake with the ambassadors of Belarus, Oman, Guatemala, Russia, Portugal, Ghana, Kuwait, South Africa, Honduras, Senegal, Tunisia, Sierra Leon, Morocco, Qatar, Brunei Darussalam (dean of the Diplomatic Corps), Gabon, Pakistan, Japan, Sri Lanka, Angola, Iran, Papua New Guinea and Bulgaria.
From the Diplomatic Corps came many mission chiefs who included Ambassadors Natallia Jhylevich of Belarus, Dato Haji Harun Ismail of Brunei Darussalam, Petar Andonov of Bulgaria, Bessho Koro of Japan, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi of Kuwait, Mohammed Chraibi of Morocco, Mohamed Salim Alharthy of Oman, Zahid Nasrulah Khan of Pakistan, Krzysztof Majka of Poland, Antonio Quintero Nobre of Portugal, Konstantin V. Vnukov of Russia, Tissa Wijeratne of Sri Lanka and Mohamed Ali Nafti of Tunisia.
▲Wives of the ambassadors cut the celebration cake.
It is a great honour for me to warmly welcome you this evening, to share with you the celebration of the sixtieth National Day of Algeria.
First of all, I would like to express my pleasure to have with us H.E Ambassador CHOI, Sung-Joo, who brilliantly served his country, as Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Algeria. He is still remaining in Algeria the Korean envoy who promoted significantly the Algeria-Korea relations. I felt it my duty to underline it today.
The celebration of the National day has, for Algeria, a particular importance this year. It is, in fact, the sixtieth anniversary of the outbreak of the independence war of the First November 1954. That day, the whole people rose up their heads and engaged on the path of sacrifice and honor, to live in freedom. Seven and half years later, after a terrible war, the independent Algeria was born. I would like, in this occasion, to pay a tribute to the memory of one million and half martyrs, fallen so that live their country.
The recovery of the National sovereignty was not the ultimate objective of the war of independence. The finality was to start another struggle, that of development, and above all, the construction of a society where the injustice endured during the colonization will be banished and a Republican State where all the citizens will be equal before the law. This ambitious project, enshrined, during the war, in a document entitled Soummam platform, is lasting, despite all the obstacles, the ultimate reference for the Algerian successive Governments.
▲From right, Ambassadors Issam Mostapha of Lebanon (former), Krzysztof Majka of Poland and Hocine Sahraoui of Algeria; Mrs. Mostapha; Mrs. Fujita (wife of the Brazilian ambassador); and Publisher-Chairman Lee Kyung-sik of The Korea Post.
If we were to shortly sum up on this day, we can say that the result is more than positive.
On the economic front, all the macroeconomic indicators are green, despite the unfavorable international environment. To illustrate the good health of the national economy and its dynamism, a plan of public investment of 262 billion dollars for the five coming years, will be launched at the end of this year, with the objective to give a new impetus to local development, and human development, as well as to consolidate the basis of a productive and diversified economy.
However, the greatest battles were won on the front of the continuation of the democratic process and the completion of the construction of the state. Without drawing up an exhaustive list, the fundamental principle of multi-party system, the freedom of expression, gender equality and the freedom of worship, has been written in golden letter in the Algerian constitution. The particular domain of the promotion of women deserves to be underlined. A voluntarist policy allowed to go beyond the social conservatism and to give the women a key role in the economic and political fields. The proportion of women in the parliament is 35%, the Algerian Government has currently 7 women ministers, dozens of women are head of diplomatic or consular missions and the number of women entrepreneurs is rapidly growing.
▲From right: Mrs. Lee Sun-jin (spouse of the chairman of the Youngone Business Group and a member of the Advisory Committee on Volunteer Service of the Korean National Red Cross (KNRC), Vice President Mrs. Kim Sun-Hyang (spouse of the president of the Kyungnam University), Ambassador Konstantin Vnukov of Russia, Publisher-Chairman Lee Kyung-sik of The Korea Post, and a director of KNRC.