Tangier: a location that promises success for your investments

“Why Hamburg?” With this question, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco H.E. Rachad Bouhlal introduced the roundtable on “Tangier – A location that promises success for your investments”. The Hanseatic city and the Kingdom have been linked by a long tradition of trade and exchange, especially through their ports, since their first agreement in 1792.

Against the impressive backdrop of the Port of Hamburg, Moroccan Ambassador H.E. Rachad Bouhlal and Honorary Consul of the Kingdom of Morocco Prof. Dr. Siedentopf welcomed the approximately 60 international guests and participants at the Hafen-Klub Hamburg. “The good partnership between EMA and TANGER MED since 2008 is a success story of mutual interest”, said Honorary Consul Siedentopf. The good international relations between Morocco and Hamburg or Germany and the EU are filled with life in the business world on a daily basis.
After the introductory words on the political framework for economic cooperation, Mr. Aref Hassani (Director Business Development Tanger/Med) explained the economic strategy of the Moroccan government to the interested audience from the logistics and consulting industry. In addition to the tourism industry, the focus is on the export industry, the agricultural sector (Green Morocco Plan) as well as the energy industry and mining. Furthermore, there is an increased focus on investments in infrastructure, including the port of Tangier/ Med. With so-called “innovative flagship projects”, Morocco promotes its global competitive position through concrete infrastructure and service measures, the education of human capital and training as well as financial tax incentives. All of this is brought together by the state-owned Tangier Mediterranean Special Agency (TMSA) in northern Morocco, 14 km off the Spanish coast.
The port’s unique geographical location was highlighted by Mr. Hicham El Aloui (Director Marketing and Communication, TANGER MED). TANGER MED opens “a whole new perspective on world trade lines!” due to its strategic location on the Strait of Gibraltar, as it connects the two continents at the minimum distance between Europe and Africa. In addition, it is a hub for shipping traffic between (Southeast) Asia and Europe and is connected to the surrounding air, rail and road networks.
TMSA’s integrated development approach is based on the three pillars “Port”, “Logistics Business” and the “TANGER MED Foundation”. In this way, TMSA combines the special competitive advantages of the port and its expansion with sustainable development in the region. The integrative concept includes, in addition to the port area, the “Great Industrial Platform”. It includes the Tangier Free Zone, the Tangier Automotive City and the Zone for Offshore Activities.
After two years of operation, the port already offers the impressive capacity of 3 million containers today. By 2014, the capacity is to be expanded to 8 million containers. The port already accommodates supersize container ships with a TEU (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit, standard container) of 13,000 GRT and a LOA (length overall) of 398 m and a width of 56.4 m (with a maximum draught of 16 m).
TMSA promises a quality standard that has already convinced international logistics and forwarding companies such as APM (France), ZPMC Shipping (Shanghai), Eurogate and MSC GATE (Germany). The interest of the trade audience at the roundtable in the Hafen-Klub Hamburg was correspondingly high.