NEW TANGIER BOXPORT OPENS

TANGER Med port has officially opened according to APM Moller group-owned APM Terminals Tangier and its local partner, Morocco-based Akwa Group. The strategically-located port will compete with Algeciras on the Spanish side of the Strait of Gibraltar.
APM Terminals' CEO, Kim Fejfer, said: "Our vision is to offer our customers more options and solutions in the Straits of Gibraltar giving them a competitive edge in world markets. The new terminal expands our global terminal portfolio in one of the world’s most important shipping lanes."
The company's vice president Martin Poulsen said: "Morocco’s proximity to Europe’s 400 million consumer market will create a new gateway to trade.”
Said Elhadi, Chairman of the Executive Board of TMSA, commented: "The opening of Tanger Med port’s first container terminal according to the timeline displays Morocco’s capacity to implement large scale infrastructural projects in a due manner. It also highlights the quality of the partnership between Tanger Med Port Authority and its world class partner APM Terminals. Our vision is to take advantage of Tanger Med port’s key location at the crossroads of East-West and North-South maritime routes while partnering with leaders in the field to benefit from their world-class services and international best operational practices. The launch of the activities of the first container terminal is setting the ground for Tanger Med port to become an important container hub leading to the development of a successful large scale logistic and industrial platform in the North of Morocco.”

Tanger-Med, a hub port

Morocco is a country with over 3,000 kilometres of coastline; 95% of its foreign trade passes through the Kingdom's 30 ports. After the 1970s, the political authorities made significant investments to equip Morocco with adequate port infrastructures, carrying out a strategy of port specialisation. However, as well as leading to inflexibility in their range, this also created difficulties for the ports in terms of adaptation to the rapid changes taking place in the maritime transport market.
As a result, a new ports policy - the National Port Master Plan - was defined, with the following main objectives: to create a new port in the Straits of Gibraltar, 35 kilometres from Tangiers; and to improve the other Moroccan port areas.
This led to the Tánger - Méditerranée project, a complex of integrated infrastructures at a strategic position in northern Morocco (15 kilometres from the European Union, on one of the major shipping routes), and included in the Special Economic Zone, which consists of: a new port, a free trade logistics area and the relevant connection infrastructure in the region.
This major project is backed by a nearby market of over 600 million inhabitants, and as such, for the year 2020, traffic of 3 million TEUs is anticipated, as well as private investment worth 1,000 million Euros, and the creation of 145,000 jobs.

Tanger-Med, a hub port
The Tanger-Med port has been designed as an exchange platform and hub port, especially for container transfer work, which is experiencing significant growth in the Mediterranean.
There are two main objectives for the Tanger-Med port; on the one hand, to absorb the container transfers of the main shipping lines with East-West and North-South traffic; and on the other, to carry out the transfers with neighbouring regions as a destination, such as the eastern Mediterranean, and northern and western Africa.
Tanger-Med will have various infrastructures:
a container terminal for transfer traffic and import-export traffic, with a 1,610-metre quay.
a ro-ro terminal for passenger traffic and TIR traffic - an estimated 2.5 million passengers and 100,000 lorries per year
a terminal for various bulk goods, especially for cereals
a hydrocarbons terminal, which will be used to redistribute products refined in the North, and will supply ships from the shipping companies sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar

Tanger-Med, a wide range of free trade areas
The Tanger-Med project will also includes a wide range of range free trade areas, which will allow added value activities to be generated effectively in the region. The free trade areas have been designed along three lines:
Logistics Free Trade Area: next to the containers terminal, it will have an area of 138 hectares and a customs area. Only logistics and transformation activities will take place.
Industrial Free Trade Area: an extension of the Tangiers free trade area, it will be situated 20 kilometres from the new port and will have an area of 600 hectares. Operators and transformation industries geared to exportation will establish themselves there.
Commercial Free Trade Area: located 18 kilometres from the new port and near the town of Fnideq, will have an area of 200 hectares. Business to business activities linked to the logistics free trade area will take place there, and will enable duty free shopping centres to be established.

Connection infrastructures
In order to link the new port and the various free trade areas, as well as connecting Morocco's economic and business fabric, the Tanger-Med project also includes the construction of connection infrastructures, of which the most significant are:
a 61-kilometre motorway linking the new port with the northern Tangiers-Casablanca motorway
a 45-kilometre railway connection between Tangiers and the future port-free trade area
a quick route linking the port and the town of Fnideq, and the free trade area located 18 kilometres away

Financing and public and private investments
An initial distribution of the public investments necessary for the financing of Tanger-Med established that the project would require a total of 1,400 million Euros, broken down as follows:
Tanger-Med Port Infrastructures: 450 million Euros
Free trade area infrastructures: 250 million Euros
Connection infrastructures: 600 million Euros
Others (energy, water…): 100 million Euros
The main financing sources were determined by:
180 million Euros from the Hassan II funds, and 270 million Euros from the Abu Dhabi Funds for the Tanger-Med Port infrastructure
153 million Euros from FADES, and 80 million Euros from FKDEA for land infrastructure connections
other funds from the BID, ADF and Moroccan banks for railway connections
As regards private enterprise, it was decided that investments of 1,300 million Euros need to be made, distributed in 300 million Euros for the new Port and 1,000 million Euros in the free trade areas.

2002, the starting point
In 2002, the Moroccan Government created a 550-square kilometre Special Development Zone, to promote access to foriegn markets for companies in Morocco, and the development of their future logistics processes, as well as to contribute to the boosting of the Moroccan economy and the development of tourism in the region.
In order to carry out, co-ordinate and administer the macro-project, the Tánger-Méditerranée Special Agency (TMSA) was established in September 2002. This is a private company with public privileges, art which works based on an agreement with the State, and interacts with the various Ministries involved.
In 2003, the agreement between TMSA and the Moroccan State was signed for a 50 year period, by virtue of which TMSA is responsible for awarding the contracts for port and logistics activities, while the State undertakes to build the connection infrastructures. TMSA is able to delegate some port activities to private investors, and is the sole agent with which companies wanting to establish themselves in the special economic zone deal with. For example, it can grant construction permits or give work authorisations.
Also in 2003, TMSA guaranteed its initial financing of 500 million Euros, and signed a contract worth 215 million Euros, with a consortium headed by the businessman Bouygues for the the construction of the port and its basic infrastructures.

Tanger-Med, ready in 2007
During 2004, the first financial operations and partnership operations took place for investment companies and those working in the Tanger-Med free trade areas. In specific terms, in October, the Tánger-Méditerranée Special Agency (TMSA) and Jebel Ali Free Zone International (JAFZI) signed a partnership and co-operation agreement for a ten-year period, to make Tanger-Med into a benchmark multimodal platform in the Mediterranean. This strategic, operational and commercial agreement stipulates that JAFZI and TMSA will promote Tanger-Med internationally to attract multinationals who can establish themselves on the two platforms.
Also in 2004, the tendering process for the hydrocarbon terminal and the tug service was opened, and the contract for the first container terminal was awarded.
During 2005, the contract for the second container terminal, the hydrocarbon dock and the tug service will be awarded. The following will also be established: the Tanger-Med Port Authority, the Tanger-Med Free Trade Areas Investment Company, and the Tanger-Med Free Trade Areas Authority.
The port construction works are planned for completion in 2006; while in 2007 the area's superstructures, land and railway connections will be completed. The commissioning of the port is also planned for July 2007, as is the beginning of work in the Logistics free trade area.

First container terminal and tendering process for the second
On 23 November 2004, the Tanger Méditerranée Special Agency (TMSA) awarded the contract for the first container terminal in the Tanger-Med port the consortium formed by APM Terminals, a company belonging to A.P. Moller-Maersk Group and Akwa Holding. The concession, in which the Maersk group has a 90% holding, is valid for a 30-year period. The consortium which will run the terminal will also the invest a total of 120 million Euros until 2007, and this figure will reach 150 million Euros in 2010. The first container terminal in the Tanger-Med port is 40 hectares in area, with an 800-metre dock.
After the contract for the first container terminal was awarded, in December 2004 TMSA decided to begin the tendering process for the second terminal, and the same bidders as in the first tender process were able to take part in this second tender, except for the consortium winning the contract for the first terminal. Among other offers, the group consisting of CMA-CGM, Evergreen, P&O Ports and Terminal Link was a bidder.

Tangier shakes off its louche reputation

Tangier, Morocco - Visitors brace for the worst when they step off the ferry in Tangier, known for decades as the shady hideout of drug barons, its crumbling old town supposedly swarming with pickpockets and rogue guides.
It's time to rewrite the guidebooks, say the people of a town beginning to rediscover some of the style and sophistication it enjoyed for centuries as a crossroads between the West and the Arab world, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean.

Residents say petty crime has abated since a new police unit began pacing the narrow streets of the old medina. Pavements have been relaid and neglected open spaces cleaned up and replanted with flowers and elegant palm trees.
Ugly buildings that loomed over the seafront have been bulldozed and replaced by upmarket restaurants serving seafood to well-heeled Spanish day-trippers.
Investors from the Gulf are moving in with projects for coastal resorts with spas, riding centres and marinas. In the old town, growing numbers of Western tourists crowd past the cafes where old men in jellabas snooze over glasses of mint tea.
Residents say Governor Mohamed Hassad recently went for a swim at the city beach, once one of the dirtiest in the world.
He survived.
"People seem a little scared of losing their bearings as things are moving so quickly," said Larbi R'Miki, president of the local cultural association, whose annual music and literature festivals are gaining international renown.
'A nouveau riche that went straight from owning a donkey to a four-wheel-drive' Local officials want to restore some of the lustre of Tangier's interwar years when it was an international zone run by the foreign powers that had coveted and fought over the strategic city for centuries.
Then, it was an island of prosperity in a poor region neglected by colonial master Spain, its lax laws, low taxes and laid-back atmosphere attracting millionaires, shady businessmen and hard-up writers.
After independence in 1956, the Moroccan authorities moved to close down Tangier's brothels, drug dens and gay bars, to the relief of conservative natives fed up with playing host to Europeans seeking an alternative lifestyle.
Economic decline set in as the international banks with offshore operations relocated to Switzerland or Spain.
When foreign owners of small businesses, cinemas, cafes and restaurants were told to take Moroccan business partners, thousands left, the gap they left in the economy filled partly by smugglers and cannabis barons.
"Tangier became practically a town of outlaws who couldn't care less about culture," said R'Miki. "This was a nouveau riche that went straight from owning a donkey to a four-wheel-drive."
Despite a government eradication campaign, Morocco still provides four-fifth's of Europe's cannabis, and hashish remains the Tangier region's biggest industry, experts say.
Fears that some cannabis dealers may be subsidising militant Islamist groups have led to a wave of arrests, but Tangier remains a hub for laundering drug money, say locals, who point out a surprising number of new, empty apartment blocks.
'A whole new middle class is being created' "This construction boom has virtually no relationship with the town's commercial development," said Michel Peraldi, an expert on Morocco's informal economy at France's CNRS research council. "It's all money-laundering."
Tangier government officials say the property sector is driven by market needs and a growing number of big international firms are taking part.
Officials say creating jobs is the best hope for attacking a cannabis industry reliant on cheap, seasonal labour. They hope for a shift in Tangier's economy from next year when ships begin docking at a big new port complex, Tanger-Mediterrannee.
The terminal will slash costs and delivery times, linking up with a chain of free trade zones to attract companies wanting a cheap production base close to European markets.
"This is going to restore Tangier's role as an international crossroads from Asia to Europe and America," said Tajeddine El-Husseini, a Moroccan professor of international economic law.
The terminal will be joined by a new motorway and upgraded rail link south to business hub Casablanca, part of an attempt by King Mohammed's government to revitalise the economy.
"Our volume of activity is doubling every year," said Jelloul Samsseme, a regional investment official. "Everyone's trying to position themselves and grab the opportunities."
The new Tangier may disappoint tourists searching for the edgy, experimental 1950s world of beat generation writers Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, who wrote his drug-fuelled novel The Naked Lunch in a Tangier hotel room.
That world is long gone, said Thor Kuniholm of the American Legation Museum in the city's old town. "What's really exciting is this city is changing. Factories are opening, schools are getting better, a whole new middle class is being created."
However, the growth has left central Tangier ringed with tatty suburbs where scant social services and high unemployment have fed into support for radical Islamist groups.
"This town is growing fast," said R'Miki. "We must be very careful not to allow the suburbs to degenerate into favelas with no rule of law."

By Tom Pfeiffer

New Tanger Med port launches its challenge

(ANSA) - TANGIERS - Set to become the first container port of the Mediterranean and Africa, Tangier-Med was inaugurated by Moroccan king Mohammed VI, who launched the works five years ago. To show its ambition, the port - situated on the south side of the Gibraltar strait - welcomed on the historic occasion the largest container ship in the world, the Evelyn Maersk, which transported 11,000 containers, equivalent to 100,000 tonnes, unloaded by five giant cranes. The realization of the Terminal 1 needed 2 billion euro of investments and the concession of 30 years for its management was granted to APM Terminals, a group owned 90% by the Maersk company, which is the third world portual operator and the first shipping company with a fleet of 250 ships and a capacity of more than 12 million tonnes. The arrival in the port of the big ship was celebrated by a tug-boat of the French company Bourbon SA which sounded its sirens. The port, victim of its success even before moving ahead full steam, will be filled by 2015 and forces the responsible of the port to think now of its enlargement in order to welcome 8 million and a half containers per year. ''The annual temporary capacity of the Tangier-Med Traffic is 3 million and a half 20-foot containers, to be reached by 2015. For this reason, from now to 2012, Tangier-Med II will be constructed, which will add a capacity of 5 million containers'', said Said el-Hadi, president of the executive council of the special agency Tanger -Mediterranee' created to construct the port.

Special Report: North Africa - Tangiers' global bid

Tangiers looks Spain squarely in the eye. Poised on the Gibraltar Strait, with a mere 14 km separating the two countries at the narrowest point, the city in northern Morocco is at the crossroads between Europe and Africa, and the new port of Tanger-Mediterranean (Tanger-Med), scheduled to start operating in July, is set to become one of the largest in the world. After years of neglect - northern Morocco had fallen out of favour with the old king after rebel groups were involved in an assassination attempt - Tangiers is finally enjoying something of a renaissance and Tanger-Med is at the heart of it. The project was instigated by the new king, Mohamed VI, who came to power after the death of his father, Hassan II, in 1999; he sees the region's strategic location as central to the country's development.
The aim is that Tanger-Med will increase Morocco's competitiveness by attracting foreign investments and boosting the country's industries (textile and manufacturing). The port's container activities will be complemented by a series of free zones, which will develop the country's import and export capacity. "The philosophy is to take advantage of our geographical location, but the objective is to fuel the development of a real industrial platform for Europe, North America and West Africa," says Said Elhadi, chairman of Tanger Mediterrannee Special Agency (TMSA), the governing body overseeing the development of Tanger-Med. "This is something new for Morocco."
It comes at a good time. Morocco's trade with the EU is booming: exports rose from $7.1 billion in 2001 to $11.3 billion in 2006, while imports soared from $11 billion to $22.4 billion. Trade between Africa and Europe is also rising: African exports to the EU doubled between 1999 and 2006 to $113 billion. The country also signed a free trade agreement with the US in January 2006 that is expected to lead to an increase in exports to North America. One in five container ships transits through the Mediterranean, so the increase in traffic is likely to be significant. As Tanger-Med sits on both the east-west and north-south shipping routes, and represents only a small detour for passing ships, it will focus on transhipment where containers are transferred from one ship to another for different legs of their journey.
As a deep-sea port, it will comfortably accommodate the latest generation of super container ships. "Experts forecast that container shipping will reach 60 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) by 2030-35 (current capacity stands at 25-26 million TEU)," says Elmostafa Almouzani, director of Tanger-Med. "Yet, the container capacity in the Mediterranean is small. Gioia Tauro is 2 million TEU, Cagliari 1 million, Port Said 1 million and a bit. The only ports that have significant growth potential are Algeciras and us."
Under current plans, the port will have a capacity of 3.5 million TEU by 2010; a possible extension could add 5 million TEU, although plans have not been finalised. With a total capacity approaching 9 million, Tanger-Med would be among the 15 largest ports in the world (see box). In his office overlooking the port, Almouzani points at a large world map and a ranking of the world's container ports. "When we're up there," he says, indicating the top of the table, "it will be great."
Morocco's northern coast is stunning: rugged and undeveloped. Tanger-Med, currently a vast building site, contrasts with the beautiful beaches nearby, but for the locals this is the first piece of good news to reach them in years. The port and the free zones will employ 150,000 people in the long run, a godsend for an area that has adjusted to its neglect by developing an extensive drug-trafficking industry. Morocco is the largest exporter of marijuana to Europe and most of it is grown in the northern Rif region. "There was a lot of thinking about how to preserve the coast," says Jamal Mikou, director of the Tangiers Free Zone (TFZ). "But we had to make a choice: we couldn't have the port without the concrete. Life was hard here for so long and drug money is easy. We have to win people's trust back and give them a reason to stay."
The TFZ is a pioneer of what is set to become a crucial part of Tanger-Med's success. Started in 1999, the TFZ was designed to attract foreign investors to Morocco through a comprehensive package of incentives: no import tax, no benefit tax for the first five years (8.75% thereafter), no custom duty, business conducted in home currency (no exchange rate) and state subsidies for industrial estates in priority industries such as automotives, aeronautics and electronics.
TFZ also pioneered the management concept of 'facilitator' that TMSA now uses: it is a private company with state prerogatives. In other words, companies wishing to set up shop in the TFZ are able to avoid all the usual bureaucratic and red tape obstacles. In a country such as Morocco, ranked 115 out of 175 on the World Bank's index on ease of doing business, this is a major selling point. "Investors usually allow a year to get everything off the ground," explains Mikou. "Here, we can deliver building permits, so we give them the parameters. If their architect works fast, it can be done in a week. I then get the plans; the next morning it's signed."
There are now 254 companies in the TFZ, mostly from southern Europe (although a couple of large Japanese investors use TFZ as their European hub), with a strong emphasis on automotive and aeronautics: they have generated $330 million worth of investment and created 28,000 jobs. "Some EU companies now come here so that they can sell their products to the US without being affected by the WTO restrictions between the EU and US," says the director. "If it's produced here, the product becomes 'made in Morocco' and can go through under the free trade agreement."
TFZ provides a number of high-end services to its clients, such as running errands (anything from paying a phone bill to picking up visitors at the airport) or cleaning premises. Mikou would also like to develop offshoring activities. Many Tangerois speak Spanish; the area would therefore be an ideal back-office platform for Spain's booming finance sector.
TMSA is now a shareholder of TFZ and is likely to capitalise on this to develop two more industrial free zones in the port's hinterland. Tanger-Med will also benefit from a logistics free zone, Medhub: located behind the container terminals, it will focus on light, value-added activities and process container goods in transit. Third-party logistics companies that specialise in distribution, such as TNT or UPS, will use the zone as a distribution platform.
The concept was tried and tested in Dubai with immense success and it was a logical step for the parent company Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) to run Medhub. "Dubai was built around the port and its free zone," says M'bouirik Mouilek, general manager of Medhub. "Jafza brings 20 years' experience to Medhub, so Morocco is buying itself time. There's no point in reinventing the wheel; it just needs to be customised."
As with TFZ, Medhub clients will benefit from a worry-free environment, proximity to large markets, low-cost logistics and cheap labour. But Mouilek says that it is the possibility of working 'just-in-time' with Europe that constitutes the biggest draw. "Take a retail business such as a consumer goods supermarket chain. It consolidates orders at Shanghai out of products originated from China and neighbouring Asian countries. The order preparation is labour-intensive. If you ordered directly from China, it would be cheap, but it would take a month. If you did it from here, you could have your order sent directly to the supermarkets at a competitive labour cost. We can deliver anywhere in Europe within 12 to 48 hours."
Medhub already has 11 clients, with another 30-40 ready to book, and plans to start operating at the end of the year. The first container terminal will be operated by APM Terminals Tangier, part of the AP Moller-Maersk Group, and the second by EuroGate Tangier, a consortium comprising leading terminal operator Eurogate, Italian shipping line Contship Italia, Moroccan shipping line Comanav, and MSC and CMA CGM, two of the world's biggest shipping lines. Maersk, MSC and CMA-CGM alone could fill the port's capacity.
Almouzani says that it took a while for people to take the port seriously, even though it had serious financial backing and all the right support. TMSA was given $200 million by the Hassan II Fund, which promotes socio-economic projects in Morocco. The company also received a $100 million grant from the Abu Dhabi Fund, a UAE development fund that finances major infrastructure projects with strong social impacts in the Middle East, and a further $200 million loan at a subsidised rate. This capital of $500 million paid for the port's main infrastructure. "At first, we didn't want to promote the port. We just wanted to build the infrastructure regardless of concessions. But as soon as we got Bouygues Construction (which built the port's main sea defences) on board, things moved fast," says Almouzani.
Terminal 1 is set to start operating in July this year and is due to reach full capacity by October. Terminal 2 will open in 2008 and the hydrocarbon terminal at the end of that year. All terminals will be multi-user facilities (although Terminals 1 and 2 are likely to see most of their business come from their shareholders) and will reserve part of their capacity for import and export activities. Tanger-Med also features a dry bulk and general cargo terminal, and a passenger and a roll-on roll-off terminal for trucks and trains, capable of handling 6 million passengers a year. Construction has just started and if all goes to plan, it will be ready by summer 2009.
A remarkable fact is indeed that things have gone so well. Most of the ports' sections will finish more or less on schedule, a testimony to TMSA's efficiency. Everyone involved agrees that had it not been for TMSA's unusual status - a private company with public prerogatives - it would have taken at least 10 years to complete the project. Outside of this framework, Morocco is still chaotic to navigate. "There is TMSA and then there is the rest of Morocco," observes Domenico Bagala, director of EuroGate Tangier.
Corruption and bribery are still rife and attitudes will be difficult to shift. On the beaches of Tangiers, couples stroll and tourists go on camel rides. The seafront is an eclectic mix of beautiful old buildings, apartment blocks and sad-looking discotheques: it's impossible to tell what is being built and what has fallen into disrepair. But it will soon change. Tanger-Med will be able to absorb the entire container and passenger traffic currently using the old port in Tangiers, and so the city is looking forward to a major facelift.
Tangiers is already the third biggest tourist destination in Morocco, and a number of projects will increase the hotel capacity from its current 15,000 beds to 40,000 by the end of the decade. Market research firm Euromonitor International predicts that the number of tourists will rise steadily from 5.1 million in 2006 to 5.8 million in 2009, a figure boosted by low-cost flights and cheaper crossings. Tangiers is also bidding for the International Exhibition of 2012 (see box), an event that would significantly boost the city's infrastructure and strengthen its appeal as a tourist destination.
A number of challenges remain, but Elhadi is realistic: "We have shown that we can implement this project in a due manner. Now we have to show that we are as efficient in operating it." First on the list is the workforce: the local population is poorly educated, even by Morocco's low standards. The literacy rate was just 53.5% in 2005, and many of the workers on site are from the better educated south. Finding the required level of skills for the 150,000 or so jobs will be difficult; Sylvain Gimenez, project director for Bouygues Construction, says that it's at supervisor level that skills are lacking.
TMSA and the port's contractors have been investing heavily in training. TMSA has developed mobile training units with the local university and the Office de Formation Professionnelle (the centre for professional training) to train people in remote areas. It is also planning to open a maritime institute to train personnel on all port-related activities. Terminal operators APM Terminals Tangier and EuroGate Tangier have both developed training programmes for system and equipment operators in their existing facilities across Europe. "We'll have 700 people by the end of the year and 90%-95% will be Moroccan," says Etienne Rocher, managing director of APM Terminals Tangier. "Transhipment is a new activity in Morocco and we'll have an important responsibility in terms of training the people we hire."
Another key factor will be security: drug trafficking is a problem because of the site's proximity to the cannabis- producing region, and illegal immigrants are also a concern, but TMSA's security system is ISPS-compliant (the standard required to trade with the US). However, many of the perpetrators of the recent bombings in Casablanca were Tangerois, and several of the Madrid and 9/11 bombers had connections with the Tangiers-Tetouan region. But TMSA dismisses the idea that Tanger-Med might be any more vulnerable than any other strategic site in the world.
Tanger-Med has to live up to its billing. "There is a strong understanding that you never get a second chance to make a good impression," says Rocher. This is Morocco's chance to boost its global credentials.
TANGIER EXPO 2012
Tangiers' candidacy for the 2012 International Exhibition (Expo) is highly political. It is the first application from an African country, and an Arab Muslim one at that. Its symbolism is high. "It would crown everything we have been working on," says Souad Hassoun, who is leading Tangiers' bid.
The $6.42 million project, including post-exhibition conversion costs to turn the facilities into a convention centre, has been designed to be integrated into the city. The theme, Routes of the world; cultures connecting for a more united world, draws on the city's history of mixed influences and its ambitions as a geopolitical centre.
Hassoun says that her team has worked hard to ensure that the technical aspects of their bid are bullet-proof. "We have the best expertise in each field. So if people don't vote for us, it will be for other reasons than the feasibility of the project."
Tangiers is up against Wroclaw in Poland and Yeosu in South Korea. If selected, the event is forecast to attract 6 million visitors and significantly boost Tangiers' reputation. "I think we will gain 15 years in terms of development," says Hassoun.
THE WORLD'S TOP CONTAINER PORTSCountry Port Capacity2006(TEU m)Singapore Singapore 28.7Hong Kong Hong Kong 26.1China Shanghai 19.1China Shenzhen 17.9S Korea Busan 12.7Netherlands Rotterdam 11.8Belgium Antwerp 11.2UAE Dubai 10.4Germany Hamburg 10.1Taiwan Kaohsiung 9.4US Los Angeles 9.3China Qingdao 9.2US Long Beach 8.6Malaysia Port Kelang 7.9Malaysia Tanjung Pelepas 6.7Source: Drewry Shipping

New Tangier port seen as gateway to Morocco

New Tangier port seen as gateway to Morocco and Africa
The operator of the new Tangier port made a presentation yesterday to interested parties about the benefis and opportunities in the new port there.
The opportunity to invite the operators of the TangerMed port came about when Gibraltar minister Joe Holliday was invited by the Moroccan government to attend a series of ministerial meetings in Morocco last year.
A presentation and press conference took place yesterday as part of events organised by the TangerMed port authority in conjunction with InvestGibraltar of the department of trade and industry.
The new TangerMed port says it will be one of the largest in the Mediterranean in respect of container services. It will also have RoRo and passenger facilities and other services.
Tangier is seen as the gateway to Morocco and Africa. There is a Tangier cree zone, special customs and fiscal regimes, and abundant workforce wih wages starting at $0.8 per hour for unskilled workers.
Presented by Realestate in Morocco

Morocco: Anchoring the North

It has been announced that Tanger-Med port will be operational in July as planned. Construction companies have worked flat out to complete the works on schedule. The first customers who wish to use Tanger-Med facilities are now ready to set up in the northern city of Tangier. "As planned, the basic infrastructures of the port were achieved at the end of 2006, meeting the terms of the contract that was signed in 2003," Said Elhadi, the chairman of the Agence Spéciale Tanger Méditerranée (TMSA), told OBG. He added Tanger-Med will receive its first commercial ship this month. In line with its aim to boost foreign investment and integrate into the world economy, Morocco will have a new industrial and commercial complex, located around a port that meets international standards, at the heart of the strait of Gibraltar. Aiming to become a transhipment centre, the complex will be adjacent to the logistic and industrial free trade zones, and linked to the national road, train and telecom network. The new port will emerge as one of the biggest ports in the Mediterranean partly due to its strategic geographical position at the crossroads of three continents. This privileged position will no doubt be key to the success of Tanger-Med, which is poised to serve an immense market of over 90m consumers. "The setting up of Tanger-Med Port comes along with the vision of developing the Northern region," said Jelloul Samsseme, the director of the Regional Centre for Investment (RCI) to OBG. He added that the establishment of Tanger-Med would help to reinforce the region's existing infrastructure, to create new export-oriented free trade zones and to raise the skills level of human resources in the region. Fouad Brini, the general director of the Agency for the Promotion and Economic Development of Northern Provinces (APDN) told OBG that Tanger-Med will not only be the first project initiated from the strategy aiming at integrating the north of Morocco with the rest of the kingdom, but will also facilitate the integration between the northern provinces themselves, especially by setting up facilities that will encourage large-scale activities in the region. Once completed, the facilities will coincide with the inauguration of Tanger-Med. The traffic looks set to explode, with 3.5m containers, more than 1m cars and around 500,000 trucks expected every year. Tanger-Med will also create more than 140,000 jobs over the next 15 years. Mohamed Said Benameur, the chief project director, indicated that about half of the project was accomplished within 18 months. "Since the Tanger Med has been a success, notably in terms of timing, we have already endorsed its extension before the first zone even started to be operational," said Samsseme. The second phase of the project will be 100% funded by the private sector, he added. The new port will be operational in mid-2009, after the completion of the necessary additional construction works, said TMSA. The reason why Tanger-Med already plans to raise its capacity is because sea traffic across the strait is expected to increase significantly. "We expect sea traffic to rise by 7% or 8% in the next five to eight years worldwide. Knowing that the number of containers crossing the strait of Gibraltar represents about 20% of the global traffic, Tanger-Med will consequently be directly affected by the worldwide growth, which will eventually have major consequences for the region," Elhadi told OBG. The positive image of Tanger-Med, which mainly derives from the quality of leading partners - namely Denmark's Maersk Logistics and CMA-CGM - will benefit the northern city at the international level. Elhadi added, "The terminals at the port of Tanger will see a rapid increase in traffic in the coming years. Tanger Med II has been launched in preparation of our existing and potential customers' needs. The project will help to increase significantly the capacity of the port facilities from 2012-2013 onwards."Tanger Med is designed to emerge as an essential transit point for containers travelling from the US to the Middle East or Asia, or vice-versa.
© Oxford Business Group 2007

North Africa - Tangiers' global bid

Special Report: North Africa - Tangiers' global bid
Words by: Emilie Filou, World Business Published: 06-Jun-07

The city's new port is set to become one of the largest in the world - tranforming the region into a competitive hub.

Tangiers looks Spain squarely in the eye. Poised on the Gibraltar Strait, with a mere 14 km separating the two countries at the narrowest point, the city in northern Morocco is at the crossroads between Europe and Africa, and the new port of Tanger-Mediterranean (Tanger-Med), scheduled to start operating in July, is set to become one of the largest in the world. After years of neglect - northern Morocco had fallen out of favour with the old king after rebel groups were involved in an assassination attempt - Tangiers is finally enjoying something of a renaissance and Tanger-Med is at the heart of it. The project was instigated by the new king, Mohamed VI, who came to power after the death of his father, Hassan II, in 1999; he sees the region's strategic location as central to the country's development.
The aim is that Tanger-Med will increase Morocco's competitiveness by attracting foreign investments and boosting the country's industries (textile and manufacturing). The port's container activities will be complemented by a series of free zones, which will develop the country's import and export capacity. "The philosophy is to take advantage of our geographical location, but the objective is to fuel the development of a real industrial platform for Europe, North America and West Africa," says Said Elhadi, chairman of Tanger Mediterrannee Special Agency (TMSA), the governing body overseeing the development of Tanger-Med. "This is something new for Morocco."
It comes at a good time. Morocco's trade with the EU is booming: exports rose from $7.1 billion in 2001 to $11.3 billion in 2006, while imports soared from $11 billion to $22.4 billion. Trade between Africa and Europe is also rising: African exports to the EU doubled between 1999 and 2006 to $113 billion. The country also signed a free trade agreement with the US in January 2006 that is expected to lead to an increase in exports to North America. One in five container ships transits through the Mediterranean, so the increase in traffic is likely to be significant. As Tanger-Med sits on both the east-west and north-south shipping routes, and represents only a small detour for passing ships, it will focus on transhipment where containers are transferred from one ship to another for different legs of their journey.
As a deep-sea port, it will comfortably accommodate the latest generation of super container ships. "Experts forecast that container shipping will reach 60 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent unit) by 2030-35 (current capacity stands at 25-26 million TEU)," says Elmostafa Almouzani, director of Tanger-Med. "Yet, the container capacity in the Mediterranean is small. Gioia Tauro is 2 million TEU, Cagliari 1 million, Port Said 1 million and a bit. The only ports that have significant growth potential are Algeciras and us."
Under current plans, the port will have a capacity of 3.5 million TEU by 2010; a possible extension could add 5 million TEU, although plans have not been finalised. With a total capacity approaching 9 million, Tanger-Med would be among the 15 largest ports in the world (see box). In his office overlooking the port, Almouzani points at a large world map and a ranking of the world's container ports. "When we're up there," he says, indicating the top of the table, "it will be great."
Morocco's northern coast is stunning: rugged and undeveloped. Tanger-Med, currently a vast building site, contrasts with the beautiful beaches nearby, but for the locals this is the first piece of good news to reach them in years. The port and the free zones will employ 150,000 people in the long run, a godsend for an area that has adjusted to its neglect by developing an extensive drug-trafficking industry. Morocco is the largest exporter of marijuana to Europe and most of it is grown in the northern Rif region. "There was a lot of thinking about how to preserve the coast," says Jamal Mikou, director of the Tangiers Free Zone (TFZ). "But we had to make a choice: we couldn't have the port without the concrete. Life was hard here for so long and drug money is easy. We have to win people's trust back and give them a reason to stay."
The TFZ is a pioneer of what is set to become a crucial part of Tanger-Med's success. Started in 1999, the TFZ was designed to attract foreign investors to Morocco through a comprehensive package of incentives: no import tax, no benefit tax for the first five years (8.75% thereafter), no custom duty, business conducted in home currency (no exchange rate) and state subsidies for industrial estates in priority industries such as automotives, aeronautics and electronics.
TFZ also pioneered the management concept of 'facilitator' that TMSA now uses: it is a private company with state prerogatives. In other words, companies wishing to set up shop in the TFZ are able to avoid all the usual bureaucratic and red tape obstacles. In a country such as Morocco, ranked 115 out of 175 on the World Bank's index on ease of doing business, this is a major selling point. "Investors usually allow a year to get everything off the ground," explains Mikou. "Here, we can deliver building permits, so we give them the parameters. If their architect works fast, it can be done in a week. I then get the plans; the next morning it's signed."
There are now 254 companies in the TFZ, mostly from southern Europe (although a couple of large Japanese investors use TFZ as their European hub), with a strong emphasis on automotive and aeronautics: they have generated $330 million worth of investment and created 28,000 jobs. "Some EU companies now come here so that they can sell their products to the US without being affected by the WTO restrictions between the EU and US," says the director. "If it's produced here, the product becomes 'made in Morocco' and can go through under the free trade agreement."
TFZ provides a number of high-end services to its clients, such as running errands (anything from paying a phone bill to picking up visitors at the airport) or cleaning premises. Mikou would also like to develop offshoring activities. Many Tangerois speak Spanish; the area would therefore be an ideal back-office platform for Spain's booming finance sector.
TMSA is now a shareholder of TFZ and is likely to capitalise on this to develop two more industrial free zones in the port's hinterland. Tanger-Med will also benefit from a logistics free zone, Medhub: located behind the container terminals, it will focus on light, value-added activities and process container goods in transit. Third-party logistics companies that specialise in distribution, such as TNT or UPS, will use the zone as a distribution platform.
The concept was tried and tested in Dubai with immense success and it was a logical step for the parent company Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) to run Medhub. "Dubai was built around the port and its free zone," says M'bouirik Mouilek, general manager of Medhub. "Jafza brings 20 years' experience to Medhub, so Morocco is buying itself time. There's no point in reinventing the wheel; it just needs to be customised."
As with TFZ, Medhub clients will benefit from a worry-free environment, proximity to large markets, low-cost logistics and cheap labour. But Mouilek says that it is the possibility of working 'just-in-time' with Europe that constitutes the biggest draw. "Take a retail business such as a consumer goods supermarket chain. It consolidates orders at Shanghai out of products originated from China and neighbouring Asian countries. The order preparation is labour-intensive. If you ordered directly from China, it would be cheap, but it would take a month. If you did it from here, you could have your order sent directly to the supermarkets at a competitive labour cost. We can deliver anywhere in Europe within 12 to 48 hours."
Medhub already has 11 clients, with another 30-40 ready to book, and plans to start operating at the end of the year. The first container terminal will be operated by APM Terminals Tangier, part of the AP Moller-Maersk Group, and the second by EuroGate Tangier, a consortium comprising leading terminal operator Eurogate, Italian shipping line Contship Italia, Moroccan shipping line Comanav, and MSC and CMA CGM, two of the world's biggest shipping lines. Maersk, MSC and CMA-CGM alone could fill the port's capacity.
Almouzani says that it took a while for people to take the port seriously, even though it had serious financial backing and all the right support. TMSA was given $200 million by the Hassan II Fund, which promotes socio-economic projects in Morocco. The company also received a $100 million grant from the Abu Dhabi Fund, a UAE development fund that finances major infrastructure projects with strong social impacts in the Middle East, and a further $200 million loan at a subsidised rate. This capital of $500 million paid for the port's main infrastructure. "At first, we didn't want to promote the port. We just wanted to build the infrastructure regardless of concessions. But as soon as we got Bouygues Construction (which built the port's main sea defences) on board, things moved fast," says Almouzani.
Terminal 1 is set to start operating in July this year and is due to reach full capacity by October. Terminal 2 will open in 2008 and the hydrocarbon terminal at the end of that year. All terminals will be multi-user facilities (although Terminals 1 and 2 are likely to see most of their business come from their shareholders) and will reserve part of their capacity for import and export activities. Tanger-Med also features a dry bulk and general cargo terminal, and a passenger and a roll-on roll-off terminal for trucks and trains, capable of handling 6 million passengers a year. Construction has just started and if all goes to plan, it will be ready by summer 2009.
A remarkable fact is indeed that things have gone so well. Most of the ports' sections will finish more or less on schedule, a testimony to TMSA's efficiency. Everyone involved agrees that had it not been for TMSA's unusual status - a private company with public prerogatives - it would have taken at least 10 years to complete the project. Outside of this framework, Morocco is still chaotic to navigate. "There is TMSA and then there is the rest of Morocco," observes Domenico Bagala, director of EuroGate Tangier.
Corruption and bribery are still rife and attitudes will be difficult to shift. On the beaches of Tangiers, couples stroll and tourists go on camel rides. The seafront is an eclectic mix of beautiful old buildings, apartment blocks and sad-looking discotheques: it's impossible to tell what is being built and what has fallen into disrepair. But it will soon change. Tanger-Med will be able to absorb the entire container and passenger traffic currently using the old port in Tangiers, and so the city is looking forward to a major facelift.
Tangiers is already the third biggest tourist destination in Morocco, and a number of projects will increase the hotel capacity from its current 15,000 beds to 40,000 by the end of the decade. Market research firm Euromonitor International predicts that the number of tourists will rise steadily from 5.1 million in 2006 to 5.8 million in 2009, a figure boosted by low-cost flights and cheaper crossings. Tangiers is also bidding for the International Exhibition of 2012 (see box), an event that would significantly boost the city's infrastructure and strengthen its appeal as a tourist destination.
A number of challenges remain, but Elhadi is realistic: "We have shown that we can implement this project in a due manner. Now we have to show that we are as efficient in operating it." First on the list is the workforce: the local population is poorly educated, even by Morocco's low standards. The literacy rate was just 53.5% in 2005, and many of the workers on site are from the better educated south. Finding the required level of skills for the 150,000 or so jobs will be difficult; Sylvain Gimenez, project director for Bouygues Construction, says that it's at supervisor level that skills are lacking.
TMSA and the port's contractors have been investing heavily in training. TMSA has developed mobile training units with the local university and the Office de Formation Professionnelle (the centre for professional training) to train people in remote areas. It is also planning to open a maritime institute to train personnel on all port-related activities. Terminal operators APM Terminals Tangier and EuroGate Tangier have both developed training programmes for system and equipment operators in their existing facilities across Europe. "We'll have 700 people by the end of the year and 90%-95% will be Moroccan," says Etienne Rocher, managing director of APM Terminals Tangier. "Transhipment is a new activity in Morocco and we'll have an important responsibility in terms of training the people we hire."
Another key factor will be security: drug trafficking is a problem because of the site's proximity to the cannabis- producing region, and illegal immigrants are also a concern, but TMSA's security system is ISPS-compliant (the standard required to trade with the US). However, many of the perpetrators of the recent bombings in Casablanca were Tangerois, and several of the Madrid and 9/11 bombers had connections with the Tangiers-Tetouan region. But TMSA dismisses the idea that Tanger-Med might be any more vulnerable than any other strategic site in the world.
Tanger-Med has to live up to its billing. "There is a strong understanding that you never get a second chance to make a good impression," says Rocher. This is Morocco's chance to boost its global credentials.
TANGIER EXPO 2012
Tangiers' candidacy for the 2012 International Exhibition (Expo) is highly political. It is the first application from an African country, and an Arab Muslim one at that. Its symbolism is high. "It would crown everything we have been working on," says Souad Hassoun, who is leading Tangiers' bid.
The $6.42 million project, including post-exhibition conversion costs to turn the facilities into a convention centre, has been designed to be integrated into the city. The theme, Routes of the world; cultures connecting for a more united world, draws on the city's history of mixed influences and its ambitions as a geopolitical centre.
Hassoun says that her team has worked hard to ensure that the technical aspects of their bid are bullet-proof. "We have the best expertise in each field. So if people don't vote for us, it will be for other reasons than the feasibility of the project."
Tangiers is up against Wroclaw in Poland and Yeosu in South Korea. If selected, the event is forecast to attract 6 million visitors and significantly boost Tangiers' reputation. "I think we will gain 15 years in terms of development," says Hassoun.
THE WORLD'S TOP CONTAINER PORTSCountry Port Capacity2006(TEU m)Singapore Singapore 28.7Hong Kong Hong Kong 26.1China Shanghai 19.1China Shenzhen 17.9S Korea Busan 12.7Netherlands Rotterdam 11.8Belgium Antwerp 11.2UAE Dubai 10.4Germany Hamburg 10.1Taiwan Kaohsiung 9.4US Los Angeles 9.3China Qingdao 9.2US Long Beach 8.6Malaysia Port Kelang 7.9Malaysia Tanjung Pelepas 6.7Source: Drewry Shipping