King chairs signing of Morocco-UAE agreement on Tangier-Mediterranean Free Zones

King Mohammed VI of Morocco chaired, Monday, the signing ceremony of a cooperation agreement relating to operations and commercialisation of the Tangier-Mediterranean free zones between the Moroccan Tangier Mediterranean Special Agency (TMSA), and the Dubai-based economic operator "Jbel Ali Free Zone International" (JAFZI).

Under the 10-year agreement, JAFZI and TMSA will undertake a strategic partnership that will enable two geographically complementary platforms to combine their respective assets to offer investors operating conditions under the best international standards.

The promoters of this huge project expect this partnership will enable Tangier Med to reach its objectives that represent a volume of private investments estimated to one billion EURO and an added value of 250 million EURO.

The considerable project is targeting a proximity market of over 600 million inhabitants, including Western Europe, Western Africa, North Africa as well as other significant markets particularly North America. Within the 2020 perspective, it is expected to reach a container traffic throughput of 3 million TEU, 1 billion EURO in private investments and the creation of 145.000 jobs.

The agreement was signed, on the Emirati side, by Soltane Ahmed ben Salim, JAFZI President, and Mohamed Charaf, general manager, and on the Moroccan side by Prime Minister Driss Jettou, Abdelaziz Meziane Belfkih, adviser to the King and also President of the "Conseil de surveillance de Tanger-Mediterranee" and Said el Hadi, President of the TMSA board of directors.

The signing ceremony was attended by Prince Moulay Rachid, (brother of King Mohammed VI), Sheikh Mhamed Ben Rached al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, also Minister of Defense, and Sheikh Hamdane Ben Zayed Al Nahyane, Vice-President of the UAE Ministers' Council and also Foreign Affairs Minister.

The TMSA, founded on September 10, 2002, is responsible for the management and implementation of this project, the most important in the region since the beginning of this century.

TMSA is a private company, with a board of directors and a supervising council. It is also endowed with public power prerogatives necessary for the management of the project on behalf of the state.

JAFZA is the international consultancy and management division of Dubai International, the international port and free zone management of Dubai's ports, Customs & Free Zone Corporation.

It was created in 2000 to meet the requirements of overseas governments or private investors seeking to establish a free trade zone, or any other type of Special Economic Zone, within their own territorial borders.

The port and the free zones are expected to be operational by September first, 2007.