The 57th Algiers International Fair opened on 22 June with 781 exhibitors from 36 countries, a measurable expansion of foreign participation that President Abdelmadjid Tebboune used to declare that Algeria “should no longer import spare parts” except for highly technical components. The fair, running under the slogan “Confidence and stability for sustainable growth”, allocated its largest single-sector space—6,357 square metres—to electrical and electronic industries, while Spain attended as guest of honour, reflecting a recovery in bilateral trade after the 2022–2023 diplomatic chill. Tebboune toured national defence and rail infrastructure stands, pointing to a domestically manufactured automatic pistol and the extension of rail lines to Tamanrasset as evidence that industrial self-sufficiency is now a policy priority.

Algeria’s pharmaceutical sector illustrates the broader import-substitution drive. The minister of pharmaceutical industry told the Council of the Nation that 250 local manufacturers now cover 82 percent of national medicine needs, with 5,400 locally produced drugs registered. A further 100 investment projects are under study, 72 for medicines and 31 for medical devices, while a target has been set to cover 50 percent of active pharmaceutical ingredient requirements by 2027. The head of the Algerian employers’ confederation welcomed the improved investment climate—citing the 2022 investment law and the new investment promotion agency—but cautioned that administrative bureaucracy and delays in obtaining commercial registration still weigh on operators, and called for accelerated digitisation of business procedures.

In Central Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo is pursuing a different dimension of resource sovereignty: the recovery of colonial-era geological maps, field reports and rock samples held at Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central Africa. Mines Minister Louis Watum Kabamba met Belgian and EU officials to agree a joint roadmap for digitising and transferring the archive, which Congolese authorities believe can unlock untapped copper, cobalt and lithium deposits. The initiative, described by Kinshasa as strengthening “geoscientific sovereignty”, coincides with a US-backed acquisition by Virtus Minerals of two cobalt and copper operations, planned to produce 75,000 tonnes of copper and 20,000 tonnes of cobalt annually. Viewed from Washington, the deal is a direct challenge to China’s dominance of Congolese cobalt supply chains, and the State Department confirmed full support, calling it a flagship investment under the US-DRC Strategic Partnership Agreement.

This convergence of investment forums and resource-data diplomacy extends beyond the two countries. The Republic of Congo is preparing the Congo Energy&Investment Forum 2027, with LNG capacity tripling to 3 million tonnes per annum and a new gas code in place, while Venezuela announced a dedicated Farm-In/Farm-Out Forum for October 2026 to present upstream assets to international operators. Across these cases, the mechanism is the same: states are pairing regulatory recalibration with curated investment platforms to convert resource potential into bankable projects. The next factual milestone to watch is the establishment of the joint task force for the DRC geological archive digitisation, expected to begin transferring digital copies to Congolese authorities in the coming months.