Morocco: Unprecedented EIB support in 2009

The visit to Morocco by EIB Vice-President Philippe de Fontaine Vive on 22 October saw the signature of a large new loan for motorway infrastructure. In 2009 the EIB will have provided unprecedented support for investment projects promoting economic and social development in Morocco.

With this agreement that has been entered into with ADM-Autoroutes du Maroc, the financing of a car manufacturing plant in Tangiers, involvement in the schools modernisation programme to improve access to education, and, by the end of the year, a contribution to the building of the capital’s tramway, the European Union’s bank has made more than half a billion euros – an unprecedented amount – available to the Moroccan economy to support its modernisation programme and help it to meet the challenges of the current crisis.

On 22 October Mr de Fontaine Vive, who, in addition to being a Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, is in charge of FEMIP (the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership), signed in Rabat, with Mr Otman Fassi Fihri, Managing Director of Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM), in the presence of Mr Salaheddine Mezouar, Minister for the Economy and Finance, a EUR 225m loan agreement – the largest amount ever allocated to Morocco – for major work to upgrade the Kingdom’s motorway network.

On the occasion of the signing of the contract, Mr Mezouar and Mr de Fontaine Vive expressed their satisfaction at the level and quality of the cooperation in relations between Morocco and the EIB, while reaffirming their common desire to build on that cooperation under the mandate entrusted to the EIB and in the light of the progress already made between Morocco and the EU.

Efficient infrastructure underpinning economic expansion

The infrastructure work undertaken by ADM, which is part of the FEMIP-supported “trans-Maghreb corridor”, provides for the widening of the Rabat-Casablanca motorway, with this priority route being upgraded to a three-lane dual carriageway, and the bypassing of the capital via a cable-stayed viaduct, a first for Morocco, across wadi Bouregreg. This work will ease congestion and enable through traffic to be diverted away from Rabat. It will thus help to improve the urban environment, make the daily life of many motorists easier and lead to safer driving conditions. The loan will also be augmented by technical assistance, in the form of a grant, to improve road safety, bringing it into line with the standards recently imposed within the European Union.

As Mr de Fontaine Vive pointed out, the EIB is a long-standing partner of ADM. In less than 15 years, MAD 9.5bn (EUR 850m) has been made available to Morocco to help provide it with a comprehensive, high-quality road network, which is a prerequisite for the balanced development of economic activity and employment throughout the Kingdom. It was also from this point of view of creating an efficient modern economic environment that FEMIP has already supported the work on improving the new Port of Tangiers, that it is backing the investment by the Office national de l’électricité and that it is also active in the sanitation sector.

This promising environment was also behind the decision by the car manufacturer Renault to augment its research and production units in Europe by setting up a modern production line near Tangiers, thereby helping to boost industrial capacity. This is a project for which FEMIP, in accordance with the decision taken by the EIB’s Board of Directors on 21 October, will be able to commit up to EUR 200m via Moroccan financial institutions.

These financing agreements are symbolic of the sustained and increasingly wide-ranging cooperation that FEMIP intends to develop with its Moroccan partners and which will lead to a doubling of its financial commitments in 2009, with financing operations totalling EUR 540m. “We are prepared to continue supporting the Kingdom’s programme to modernise and open up its economy”, Mr de Fontaine Vive stated. “In these times of economic difficulties and uncertainty about the future facing all countries, the EIB”, he continued, “intends to fulfil its role as a countercyclical institution, as it is doing within the European Union, by increasing its lending to its Mediterranean partners. Especially as all this investment,” he added, “is also aimed above all at improving living conditions for the people concerned.”

Supporting human capital and promoting quality of life

Concerned about the part played by Moroccan citizens in the process of modernising the Kingdom’s society and economy, last July the EIB provided EUR 200m for the 2009-2012 Emergency Programme to reform the educational system and modernise schools introduced by the Moroccan Government. This project is also attracting the support of the European Commission, Agence française de développement, the African Development Bank and the World Bank in a partnership formally launched in Rabat on 23 October under the aegis of the Moroccan Ministry of Education. It is likewise is in line with the ethos of the newly created Marseille Centre for Mediterranean Integration (MCMI).

About FEMIP

FEMIP (the Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership) was established in October 2002, at the request of the Barcelona European Council, to strengthen and extend the EIB’s activities in the Mediterranean partner countries. It is today the major player in the development of the Mediterranean, its priorities being to develop the local private sector and create an environment that favours investment. In six years FEMIP has invested more than EUR 8.5bn in 125 major projects, supported the development of 1 770 local SMEs and allocated nearly EUR 100m for 113 technical assistance operations and studies. Between 2004 and 2008, the EIB signed loans in Morocco totalling EUR 1.3bn. For further information, see: http://www.eib.org/projects/regions/med/index.htm