US ambassador calls for reducing deadlines for investment files handling
Morocco-USA, Economics, 10/24/2000

US ambassador to Morocco, Edward Gabriel, called for reducing the deadlines for handling investment requests in Morocco.

Morocco should reduce the deadlines for processing investment files in less than two months to drain more international investments, Edward Gabriel said in an interview with MAP.

It is possible for Morocco to be more competitive than the United States, which drains the highest number of investments, he said.

Morocco, which is already more competitive than its regional neighbors, has to make more efforts to increase its competitiveness in comparison with countries like the United States, where are there are still some impediments to investments, the diplomat said, underlining the need to give a diligent answer to investment applications. If it takes two years for investors to get an answer to their application, the operator has enough time to invest his money elsewhere, he cautioned.

It takes 15 minutes to create a firm in Canada, two weeks in the USA and two months in France, he said.

Gabriel attended Monday in Tangier a round table during which investment opportunities in northern Morocco were presented to US businessmen and economic operators.

The event, held at the initiative of the US trade chamber in cooperation with the US embassy in Morocco, provided opportunity to executives of US holdings and Moroccan enterprises to trade viewpoints on their fields of interest and to explore business opportunities in the region which boasts several industrial zones and two free trade areas in the city's port and airport.

Debates covered conditions required by US companies to invest in countries such as Morocco.

Some US companies seeking Moroccan partners or distributors are displaying their catalogues at an exhibition in the Tangier industrial area.

The US diplomat lauded the boldness that marked debates during the round table. The discussions helped study the reform of Morocco's laws on real-estate, labor and tax as well as other problems linked to corruption and red tape, he said.

Touching on US investments in Morocco, the diplomat said his country has become in the past three years the third investor in Morocco.

He said several large American firms are interested in projects in northern Morocco. Some companies like the International Underwear and Delphi are already operating, employing 2,600 workers. He voiced hope that other companies, like CMS Energy and General Electric International, will have their projects approved to manage liquid wastes and build the northern power plant of Tahddart.

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