The "Morocco Project" carried and implemented by the Sovereign for seventeen years is like a mosaic image that takes shape as its pieces are placed one next to the other. With hindsight, and when one looks at the various projects launched by H.M. the King since the Sovereign's accession to the Throne, one realises that everything was ultimately linked and that all the projects converged at the end of the road to complement each other and lay the foundations for a solid and inclusive economy. An economy which, ultimately, aims to ensure the Kingdom a place of choice in a world where only those with a strong capacity for anticipation and a great creative spirit can survive upheavals and adversities.
One of the many examples of this "mosaic construction" of Morocco's economic development is indeed the signing yesterday in Beijing of a memorandum of understanding for the creation of an industrial and residential park in Morocco between the Kingdom and a large Chinese company. A memorandum that focuses on the development of logistics and residential zones in the Tangier region.
This project, among others, is the culmination of a coherent and ambitious Royal Vision for the northern region of the Kingdom. A vision that the Sovereign started with the realisation of the port and industrial megaproject of Tanger-Med, but not only that, since it was also necessary to equip this project with all the vital road and rail infrastructure, an extension through Tanger-Med II in 2009, the launch of the "Great Industrial Platform" of this port complex or through the rapid development of its free, industrial and logistics zones. Not to mention an ideal urban environment for the installation of major international investors through the Tanger-Metropole programme. Everything comes together at the end of the road to finally form something grandiose to the point of fascinating friends and thwarting adversaries. This is the royal approach to development: visionary and ingenious.
"We are today launching one of the largest economic projects in the history of our country. It is the new Tanger-Med port which We consider as the core of a large port, logistics, industrial, commercial and tourist complex," the Sovereign said in February 2003, during the launch of the Tanger-Med megaproject. Thirteen years ago, therefore, the establishment of an industrial and residential park was already present in the Royal Vision.
Let us recall the steps that have been taken since 2003 and which, today, have ensured that such an important Chinese company is interested in it. The whole secret of success lies in the constant monitoring and the particular interest granted by the Sovereign to this project, which allowed the "Med Hub" logistics zone to be operational as early as 2010. Should it be pointed out that the first industrial free zone is now completely saturated, while the adjacent "Automotive Industrial Zone" launched in 2012 has seen the installation of major industrial projects such as that of Renault Tanger Méditerranée?
The signing, yesterday, under the effective chairmanship of His Majesty the King by Moulay Hafid Elalamy, Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment and Digital Economy, Ilyas El Omari, President of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, and the president of the large Chinese group of a memorandum of understanding, therefore, only confirms the primary vocation of Tanger-Med consisting of the development of industry, the creation of wealth and development in the hinterland of the port.
But, this is not the only economic interest. Let us remember: the royal vision is a mosaic composed of several coherent and harmonious elements that aim for the same objective, namely the prosperity and fulfilment of the Moroccan citizen.
Also, does the regionalisation launched by the Sovereign as a vital project not complement and above all facilitate the implementation of this development approach? This is illustrated once again in the royal Tanger-Med project and in all the projects that have stemmed from it. This project is in phase with the spirit of the regionalisation process which has endowed the Regional presidency with adequate means and mechanisms to serve the interest of the population, to demonstrate dynamism, capacity for autonomous action and a spirit of openness to the outside world. "We also want, through this achievement, to give the Northern Region a solid economic framework, of international level, and free zones, thus allowing it to enhance its rich potential and make it a model of integrated regional development, the benefits and repercussions of which will benefit the whole country," His Majesty the King had stressed on 17 February 2003.
Regional projects that have an international reach in a perspective of integrated national development. Such is the Sovereign's approach to development. And this is what makes our country's specificity in its regional environment today: it has the advantage of having a leadership that carries a coherent and relevant vision that carries it towards the future, and thanks to whom the Kingdom does not navigate by sight like some countries in its neighbourhood.