During Vice-President de Fontaine Vive's visit to Morocco, the EIB announced its first ever EUR 70 million loan in support of the Moroccan health sector. This will benefit 17 hospitals throughout the country.
The loan will be granted to the Health Ministry and will enable the Kingdom of Morocco to implement its health sector modernisation programme. FEMIP financing will be destined primarily for 17 general hospitals spread right across the country, including the Ibn Sina university hospital in Rabat. The loan will be earmarked for the rationalisation, rehabilitation, extension, technical improvement, fitting-out and construction of new public hospital infrastructure.
The project financed will help to make quality health services - especially the treatment of acute infections and standard healthcare - more accessible to all sections of Morocco's population. It will bolster the Health Ministry's efforts to adapt the Moroccan healthcare system to the country's epidemiological and demographic trends.
At the signing ceremony, Mr de Fontaine Vive remarked: This loan in favour of the Moroccan healthcare sector clearly demonstrates FEMIP's commitment to playing a dynamic role in the future development of the country and the region as a whole. The hospitals concerned were selected with a view to making hospital services as accessible as possible and substantially improving the quality of care provided. By virtue of its exceptionally long term of 20 years and its grace period tailored to the pace of implementation of the schemes, this FEMIP loan to the Health Ministry will make a decisive contribution to achieving the goals of hospital service reform under optimal financial conditions from the perspective of Morocco's healthcare budget.
During his visit, Mr de Fontaine Vive also took part in the official launch of the Capital North Africa Venture Fund, an investment fund in which the EIB has taken a EUR 5 million stake as core shareholder. This fund will be managed by Capital Invest (BMCE Capital), which has previously proved its worth in managing the Capital Morocco I fund, also supported by the EIB.
The Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP) is the culmination of a partnership between the European Union and its Mediterranean neighbours that goes back more than thirty years and was intensified in the 1990s in support of the Barcelona Process. The Facility aims to help the Mediterranean partner countries meet the challenges of economic and social modernisation and enhanced regional integration within the Wider Europe-Neighbourhood framework.
FEMIP gives priority to financing private sector ventures, with the dual aim of liberalising the economies of the Mediterranean partner countries and developing their potential in the run-up to the creation of a customs union between those countries and the EU in 2010. It focuses on foreign direct investment and local private sector initiatives as well as social-sector projects, particularly in the fields of health, education and environmental protection, which are fundamental to achieving social stability and encouraging productive investment.
FEMIP operations are managed by the European Investment Bank (EIB), which deploys three types of product: loans, investment capital (equity and quasi-equity) and technical assistance.
In 2005, FEMIP lent a total of EUR 2.2 billion in the Mediterranean partner countries.
During his visit, Mr de Fontaine Vive took part in the launch of the Capital North Africa Venture Fund, an investment fund in which the EIB has taken a EUR 5 million stake.