Deal for construction of basic installations of Tangiers port signed
Morocco, Economics, 6/13/2003

Morocco's King Mohammed VI chaired Wednesday in Agadir the signing ceremony of a deal for the construction of basic installations of the Mediterranean Port of Tangiers (Northern Morocco).

The US$ 242-million deal was signed between the Tangiers Mediterranean Special Agency and a grouping piloted by the World construction leader, Bouygues Corporation, which won the bid.

Under the contract, the group undertakes to construct the basic installations in 36 months. The Mediterranean Port of Tangiers is planned to be operational in 2007.

The facility, that will cost 5 billion dirhams, nearly US$ 500 million, is the central facility of this ambitious project.

The deal was initialled by Martin Bouygues, Chief Executive Officer of the Bouygues Group, and Mustapha Bakkoury, President of the Directory of the Tangier Mediterranean Special Agency.

The new port, part of the national port plan, will allow a better distribution of goods and passengers traffic and the development of new sources of income. A part of the containers transshipment and cereals traffic will be transferred to the new port.

Besides developing international road transport traffic, the new facility will reduce pressure on the city of Tangier and make of it a pole of tourism and cultural attraction and transform the city's present port into one of the largest cruising platforms of the Mediterranean.

Import/export will be the port's major activity, as it will be handling a part of the current traffic at the old port of downtown Tangier, goods generated by the nearby free zones and from the thriving containers transshipment and cereals transport.

With this port, Morocco moves to materialize a huge project in the region, a project that will make of Tangier a new engine for regional social and economic take off.

The zone, dubbed the Special Development Zone of Tangier, will be built at the intersection of the world major sea routes, 35 km east of Tangier and 15 km south of Europe.

The zone will be made up of a seaport, export free zones, tourism activity areas and connecting infrastructures (roads, highways and railways).

On the fringes of the signing ceremony, King Mohammed VI appointed Said Hadi, new President of the Directory of the Tangier Mediterranean Special Agency in replacement of Mustapha Bakkoury.

Previous Stories:
  World Bank loans Morocco $25 mln to help fight poverty   (6/12/2003)
  Pan-African bank lauds Morocco's economic growth   (6/12/2003)
  Morocco underscores progress towards FTA accord with US   (6/12/2003)

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