The first hub dedicated to air freight should take up residence in Benslimane. A strategic study is currently being developed to define all the technical details of this gigantic project. The announcement is from Aziz Rebbah, Minister of Equipment and Transport who was the guest of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce on June 27 in Casablanca. Rebbah thus cuts short the information that has circulated about a probable hub in Tangier. And in the process, the Equipment department is currently conducting other studies in consultation with the National Office of Airports (ONDA) to determine the vocation to give to the Benslimane airport. According to Rebbah, the analysis of the various installation scenarios for the hub shows that Benslimane is, in more than one respect, the city that must house this future infrastructure. His explanation: "the geographical positioning of this city is such as to allow us to develop in parallel an intermodal transport system to connect the hub to the various industrial activity zones and logistics platforms. Because to install an air hub dedicated to freight, one must take into consideration the intermodal transport aspect in order to connect the source and the destination of the goods to the airport infrastructure". During his intervention, Rebbah also addressed the training component to accompany the development of the aeronautics sector, both transport and industry. "We intend to set up a whole training centre dedicated to the activity. The ambition is, in addition to satisfying local demand, to be able to export our grey matter", underlines the minister. It is a model that the Equipment department intends to generalise to all sectors under its supervision. "Training is a key element in our strategy. Our reflection today is articulated around the organisation of training in centres: aeronautics, maritime, logistics, and transport", specifies the guest of the Swiss Chamber of Commerce. If everything goes as Rebbah wishes, this organisation into centres should begin to take shape in 2014. On the maritime transport side, the ministry has, to say the least, its work cut out for it. It intends first to strengthen passenger transport where the Moroccan flag has taken a hard hit. "It is a sector with high potential for our country. The calls for tenders to attract investments in this sector will soon be launched", recalls Rebbah. But there is not only maritime passenger transport to develop, that of goods is just as strategic. This is moreover why Rebbah intends to endow the activity with a "serious" roadmap. Objective, to make national champions specialised in bulk maritime transport emerge. A profession that has bright days ahead of it since Morocco is one of the most important exporters of bulk in the region (notably phosphate products). It is all the more opportune as this mode of transport costs a whopping 22 billion dirhams.

Soon, all regions of Morocco will have their logistics platforms. Promise of the Equipment department which is currently conducting negotiations with the regional councils to adapt these future infrastructures to the economic and notably industrial specificities of each zone. The project also involves the implication of the National Ports Agency (ANP) and the ONCF, which depending on the regions, will be able to set up dry ports relayed by rail networks. The Minister of Equipment does not, however, provide details as to the start date of this project.