Casablanca: the hub of foreign investment in Morocco

27/07/2007

Hamid Ben Elafdil, Managing Director of the Regional Centre for Investment (CRI), says Casablanca attracted nearly 10 billion dirhams in investments in 2006. These projects will create more than 40,000 permanent jobs in the region.

Interview by Adam Mahdi for Magharebia in Casablanca – 27/07/2007

[Adam Mahdi] Hamid Ben Elafdil

In an interview with Magharebia, Hamid Ben Elafdil, Managing Director of the Regional Centre for Investment (CRI), discusses investment progress and trends in Morocco's economic capital and projects currently underway to boost foreign investment.

Magharebia: How are investments in Casablanca doing?

Hamid Ben Elafdil: Rather well. If you refer to 2006 statistics, Greater Casablanca attracted, solely through the CRI, nearly 10 billion dirhams in investments; nearly double the figure from 2005. These projects will create more than 40,000 permanent jobs in the region, mainly in the services sector. Preliminary trends observed in 2007 keep us optimistic.

Aside from the figures, I think that Greater Casablanca won in 2006 in terms of vision. In fact, today we have a true economic development strategy for the whole region, developed in co-operation with all the region's actors – authorities, elected officials, private traders, universities and social partners – and delineated into offers of plots of land: Casa Nearshore, the PDRT (Plan for Regional Tourism Development) and Casa Aerocity. We hope to enrich this "product line" with new offers for other sectors. Each of these offers contains human resources and property components, as well as a tax and non-tax incentives package.

Magharebia: What problems do investors generally face?

Ben Elafdil: You know, one of the first questions that investors ask us is "Who am I going to work with?" Next is the question "Where am I going to set up?" Improving the investment climate is therefore undoubtedly done by providing a lasting solution to the problem of human resources and competence, and by an offer adapted in terms of business property. The offers of plots of land which I spoke about provide an adapted response to the actual needs of investors.

Magharebia: What are you doing to increase the number of businesses created in the region?

Ben Elafdil: Our leitmotiv at the CRI is not to create the greatest number of businesses. Our principal mission is to work under the Wali's direction to attract maximum investment, to create the jobs necessary for the young Casablancans of today and tomorrow. Over the next 20 years we must create more than 660,000 jobs to reach total employment in the region. Rather than saying that we created 4,500 businesses in 2007, I prefer to say that the work of strategic reflection, led by all actors in the region, and thanks to the visibility that we were able to give to property in certain strategic sectors (Offshoring, Tourism, Aeronautics) and other large structuring construction works, allows us today to respond to 45% of the jobs at stake in the region. We are working to fill the rest.

On the other hand, to answer your question, I'll tell you that we do not manage a single effort to improve the conditions in which all these businesses are created, whether it is in terms of delay or quality of service. Our approach, which I hope will be certified in the months to come, follows this logic.

Magharebia: Which sectors are experiencing a massive inflow of investments? Which are the promising sectors in the region?

Ben Elafdil: Beyond annual statistics, I would say that since the region has instituted a land offer that is clear, complete, fitted to the needs of investors and, above all, visible in the investments circuits, the investments have started to multiply in the sector. 2006 was the year of the PDRT and it is only natural that tourism drew in 41% of investment in the region.

Another striking example is the Casa Nearshore Offer, thanks to which we succeeded in creating more than 30,000 job opportunities in the region. And even before the park emerges, we already have, in terms of objectives, enough to complete the first phase of Casa Nearshore Park.

Magharebia: And what about the big projects that will be created in the Greater Casablanca region?

Ben Elafdil: Several great building sites were recently launched in the region, and not only in Casablanca, but also in Mohammedia, Mediouna and Nouacer. Most of these projects are admittedly by private investors, but are the fruit of a true public-private partnership. Furthermore, public authorities, under the Wali's direction, launched projects aiming to improve the region's urban infrastructure, notably through the signing of more than 5.3 billion dirhams worth of contracts between state and local authorities for development plans for the cities of Casablanca, Mohamedia and Mediouna. These projects will serve to improve the living conditions of the region's citizens and boost the region's attractiveness to investors.

Magharebia: The CRI recently presented the "Casablanca Business Park 2020" Plan. What does it involve?

Ben Elafdil: This plan is our strategic response to the problem of business real estate in the region. I’ll tell you right away about all these investors, which we must attract to the region to create 660,000 jobs. It will be necessary to find a place adapted to accommodate these investments, so they can prosper. To do this, we estimated the property necessary for Greater Casablanca in 2020, at nearly 7,000 hectares, combining all sectors and activities. In order to avoid repeating mistakes made in the past, which created disused industrial zones, inadequate offices, and tourist zones that have nothing touristic but the name, it is essential that future zones be conceived, equipped and managed by true professionals, with the true involvement of the public administration. In partnership with the region and the wilaya, we have launched a call for a study cabinet that will accompany us in the formalization of this strategy. The first results and actions on the land will come at the beginning of next year.