Tangiers-Med
Tanger Med is a global logistics gateway located on the Strait of Gibraltar and connected to 174 ports worldwide with handling capacities of : 9 million containers, exports of 1 million new vehicles, transit of 7 million passengers and 700,000 trucks on an annual basis. Tanger Med constitutes an industrial hub for more than 800 companies representing a yearly export turnover in excess of 6 400 MEUR in various sectors such as automotive, aeronautics, logistics, textile and trade. shipping containers.
The Tanger Med Project is the biggest port in Africa. The project is a strategic priority of the Moroccan government for the economic and social development of the North Morocco region. It is part of the economic policy orienting Morocco towards exports, based on eight clearly identified export sectors, with particular emphasis on the free trade agreement with the European Union to be implemented by 2012.
Completion of the «Tangier-Mediterranean» project will have important economic effects in terms of jobs, creation of added value and foreign investment. Its particular position on the Straits of Gibraltar, at the crossing of two major maritime routes, and 15 km from the European Union will enable it to serve a market of hundreds of millions of consumers through the industrial and commercial free zones which will be run by well-known private operators. It will also win part of the strong growth market of container transshipment and become the leading hub for cereal transshipment, a facility which is non-existent in the north-west African region at present.
The project will be implemented, coordinated and managed by TMSA, a private company with public prerogatives, operating under an agreement with the State and interacting with the different ministries involved.
The port complex will have important economic effects in terms of jobs, creation of added value and foreign investment. In addition to the economic effects of the operation of the port, there will be important effects resulting from its construction, particularly through foreign investments, and others from the operation of the free zones (direct and indirect added value, direct gains, jobs and foreign investment).
A draft loan contract of $180 mln to fund the expansion works of Tanger-Med port was signed in October 2008 for building a second deepwater port, dubbed "Tangier Med II", to meet the growing demand for container handling at international level in sea transport. The new port facilities, scheduled to be operational by the second half of 2012, will include two new container terminals with a total length of 2,800 m and an additional nominal capacity of 5 million containers. Final official approval for "Tangier Med II" was received on 7 January 2009, with actual construction started on 17 June 2009. In November 2010 the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a loan of €200 million for the extension of the port.
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