ALGIERS – Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune said on Saturday that Algeria will launch new reforms to boost the industry sector for economic recovery.

“It is time to establish an industry sector based on coherent and strong foundations, which serves the national interests, and will become one of the pillars of comprehensive and sustained national development,” Tebboune said at the opening ceremony of the National Conference on Industry Recovery in the capital Algiers.

Under the theme Taking up the Challenge Together, the conference is aimed at establishing a strategic vision for the industrial sector and mobilizing the relevant actors around the goals of the economic revival.

The industrial sector in Algeria is still lagging behind, as it merely contributes 5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), Tebboune said, adding the main challenge for the government is to increase the sector’s contribution to the GDP to 15 percent in the short term.

A recent report of the International Monetary Fund noted that Algeria has “many untapped sources of growth and jobs,” but “developing them requires a profound transformation of the economy and diversifying it away from hydrocarbons.”