On September 27th, the Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment, and the Digital Economy organized a meeting on the ‘Project Bank’ (PB) along with the new industrial investment opportunities it offers in terms of industrial, health, and food sovereignty in Casablanca.
Underlining the importance of PB as a major pillar of industrial recovery, the Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment, and Digital Economy, Ryad Mezzour, launched the fourth generation of opportunities. “96 new sheets/targeted projects that aim to enrich the PB, comprised of 275 projects, and expand it to include the dimension of industrial, health and food sovereignty, in conformity with the Royal Instructions of King Mohammed VI”, he indicated. Also, to emphasize that the industry is called upon, within the current context, to face the strategic issues of sovereignty and food security by meeting the challenges of self-sufficiency in essential products, competitiveness, and innovation.
These new opportunities cover seven themes: water, medicine, medical devices, food inputs, industrial development of agricultural resources, packaging and equipment, and machinery. “Through these new opportunities, we seek to capitalize on Morocco’s achievements during the pandemic and to display the great potential demonstrated by industrial operators and the opportunity to go further and innovate even more,” said Mr. Mezzour. Adding to that, these new opportunities represent an investment potential of 16 billion dirhams that can generate 67,000 jobs and an overall turnover of nearly 28 billion dirhams.
The Minister praised the commitment and enthusiasm of the project leaders stating that “since its launch in September 2020, BP has come a long way thanks to the growing enthusiasm it has aroused among industrialists. The results are very positive: To date, 1179 investment projects, 87% of which have Moroccan capital, have been identified by PB in the 12 regions of the Kingdom. This represents 266,392 estimated jobs, a potential local turnover of 68 billion dirhams, and 73 billion dirhams for export. It is beyond the expected objectives!”
PB was born to promote local manufacturing and strengthen Moroccan capital in industry, entrepreneurship, and industrial integration to preserve and boost exports. It witnessed great success in the span of barely two years. A success that it also owes to the multidimensional support system that it offers to project leaders profiting, in this context, from financial support for investment, public and private procurement, industrial property, as well as appropriate training and compliance. A system that is now being strengthened with the Investment Charter, driven by King Mohammed VI, aims to support projects, reduce territorial disparities and develop investment in priority sectors. “The Investment Charter is an integrated, very advantageous device that targets both foreign and local investors. This is an important lever for supporting project leaders,” said the Minister.
There are also other levers at the service of this support, in particular sourcing contracts, which offer new opportunities for local production, and support for the development of innovation and research via new tools that meet the needs of the investor and others for financing and technical assistance.
“We will not stop on such a good path. The PB adventure is continuing thanks to everyone’s commitment and the common desire to lift the Moroccan industry to the top of the podium,” said Mr. Mezzour. Therefore, to mark the launch of PB’s new investment opportunities, Mr. Mezzour signed a 2022-2027 program contract in the pharmaceutical sector, with Mr.Khalid Aït Taleb, Minister of Health and Social Protection, as well as the General Confederation of Moroccan Companies (CGEM), the Pharmaceutical Enterprise in Morocco (known as LeMM), the Moroccan Association of Generic Medicine (known as AMMG) and the Moroccan Federation of Pharmaceutical Industry and Innovation (known as FMIIP).
In the long term, this program contract sets aims of creating nearly 16,000 industrial employments and a direct annual added value of approximately 6 billion dirhams. Moreover, it also aims to improve the trade balance by nearly 10 billion dirhams and increase direct turnover by about 15 billion dirhams.
At the end of this meeting, Mr. Mezzour signed 40 memorandums of understanding and industrial agreements with various industrial operators, within the framework of projects identified by PB. The latter is going to be operating in different industrial sectors, with an overall investment amount of 2.5 billion dirhams, thus enabling the creation of more than 6,508 direct jobs.