Scottish architects RMJM are said to have been hired to work by an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund on a vast leisure and residential project in Algeria. The firm has confirmed that it is involved with a feasibility study at the site, and is understood to be drawing up designs for a 30,000 hectare waterfront development as cash rich sovereign funds look to invest their growing oil wealth in commercial properties abroad.
Funds such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which has more than $800 billion in its war chest, have been scouting for large commercial property projects abroad as their wealth continues to soar off the back of high oil prices.
There are $50 billion Arab investment commitments in Algeria, including the significant projects announced by the Emirates giant Emaar, which are being held up by bureaucracy, despite being approved at the highest levels. The great interest which surrounded the announcement of the Arab investment projects in Algeria, and the State guarantees allocated to Arab investors have so far not been enough to overcome mountains of local red tape.
Representatives of the Emirates ports management company Dubai Ports have also paid a visit to Algiers in recent weeks. They were there to discuss the management of a container terminal in Algiers port, which still lags behind schedule, despite guarantees offered by the UAE Company.
One of the problems appears to be that oil wealth has meant tourism has been a low priority for the government, despite the powerful attractions that Algiers could exert on Western tourists in search of the exotic and educational.
The result is that the labyrinth of alleyways, palaces and fountains of the Casbah, clinging to a steep hill above the Algiers port, is now a collection of slums with buildings in desperate need of repair. Many of the population of more than 30,000 there live in squalor.
The Casbah was a centre of Algerian resistance against French forces in Algeria's 1954-1962 war of independence, and was also a stronghold of Islamist guerrillas in the early 1990s at the start of a revolt against the army-backed government that has today largely died down. Residents, officials and diplomats all say that security is now greatly improved in the Casbah.
But the idea of using it to generate tourism, development and jobs, shore up political stability and fight poverty, has never ranked highly with Algeria's elite; and the town, named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992, was only declared a protected site under Algerian law in 2003.