French Bouygues group officially chosen to construct $ 400 mln port in northern Morocco

The Moroccan government on Wednesday officially entrusted the French leading construction group Bouygues with building a $ 400 million port in the northern city of Tangiers.

The contract was initialled by Moroccan equipment minister, Bouamour Taghwane, and Bouygues' President and Managing Director, Martin Bouygues.

Construction works will begin at the end of 2000 and are scheduled to be completed by 2004.

The Tangiers-Atlantic port, to be built over an area of 200 hectares, and the adjacent industrial zone will positively impact on Morocco's employment market and economy in general, Moroccan Prime Minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, said at the signing ceremony.

Youssoufi, who underlined the need to enhance investment to spur growth, said Morocco has to invest $ 3 billion annually to post an annual growth rate of 6 %.