Morocco Introduces The Openness Policy
According to the Chief Executive Officer of Renault-Nissan Carlos Ghosn, Morocco’s openness to the European, Arab, Asian and American markets will help ease the export of Renault-Nissan products; Mr Ghosn said this in the city of Marrakech, Morocco.
The CEO of Renault-Nissan said at a forum on “The risks of underinvestment in infrastructure” which was held as part of the WEF (World Economic Forum) on MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region that Morocco’s openness policy will allow Renault’s plant located in the city Tangier, which is expected to have a yearly production capacity of four hundred thousand (400,000) units, to be made available to both the domestic and the global markets.
Applauding Morocco’s efforts to build up infrastructure, Ghosn said that Morocco has a very large human potential. In Goshn’s own words “Morocco has a skilled labor which is ready to improve itself”.
The president of the EU’s (European Union)’s economic council Andrea Canino also spoke at this occasion, he said that before starting any infrastructure scheme, Morocco’s authorities must sit with the operators concerned and engage in dialogue in order to asses the usefulness of the scheme and its benefits in the short-term and long-term.
Andrea Canino said that this system has been implemented by Morocco, noting that the government had started discussion on the value of the “Tangiers-Med port project” with worldwide operators prior to its launch.
How Has Morocco Benefited from The Openness Policy?
The openness policy adopted by Morocco has made this country stand in good stead in terms of free trade. Morocco’s Foreign Trade Minister Abdellatif Maâzouz in an interview with British Daily Financial Times said that The Kingdom of Morocco maintains free-trade relations with fifty five (55) nations representing a billion consumers. Maâzouz went on to say that Morocco also has special ties with all countries in the EU along with those countries of the European Free Trade Association, Turkey, the US and Arab nations.
The European nations are known to remain at the core of the Kingdom of Morocco’s trade. The Minister said that in 2009, the trade with the European space was over 56 percent of the sum of the country’s trade and more than 65 percent of the exports of Morocco were destined for European consumers.
Europe is a major partner of the Kingdom of Morocco, with over 3 million tourists visiting this country in the past year alone.
Now, regarding investments, the European Union holds 60 percent of Morocco’s direct investments in the last decade. According to a Moroccan official, the UK ranked 6th in 2009, in terms of trading with the Kingdom of Morocco and ranked 14th amongst the countries that supplies Morocco.
What about Exportation?
The “Morocco Export Plus” scheme was launched by Morocco in order to improve its foreign trade, Maâzouz stressed that this project was launched with the intention to double Morocco’s exports by the year 2015 and triple the exports in 2018.
The main goal according to Maâzouz, is to help strengthen the position of the Kingdom as a strong platform for investments and exports.
Filed Under: Economic News of Morocco
