During 1959 242 milliard francs had been invested, and a further 326 milliards earmarked for 1960; 132 new industrial enterprises had been projected, 400,000 acres of arable land (still not very much in relation to demand) handed over to Muslim farmers; the number of jobs for manual workers had been increased by eight per cent in only six months, while school attendance for Muslim children had risen from 510,000 in 1958 to 840,000 at the beginning of 1960. Under the “thousand villages programme”, designed to counter the miseries of regroupment, 38,000 housing units had been constructed. In November 1959 the oil pipeline from Hassi-Messaoud to Bougie entered into service; in March 1960 work was to begin on the Hassi-R’Mel—Arzew pipeline for natural gas, and plans were under way to build a major steel complex at Bône. All this represented a considerable advance over anything done, socially or economically, for Algeria in the past—as well as being a pledge and an assurance to the Muslims that France had no intention of pulling out.

XREF: This pre-independence investment blitz contrasts sharply with post-independence economic realities in Algeria.

Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Alge…, loc. 1028