MOROCCO: TANGER FREE ZONE GROWS, CHANCE FOR COMPANIES
The target is to expand the Tanger Free Zone, a free exchange area managed by Moroccan state agency TMSA and situated in the country's North, from current 1,000 hectares to 5,000, covering an 80 kilometre radius, with new industrial development areas, including one dedicated to car production.
It's the intention of the heads of the Free Zone, visiting Milan to present to an audience of 80 businessmen the opportunities in this development project where the presence of Italian companies is still limited.
Created in 1999, the Free Zone "today counts 475 companies and generates 10% of Moroccan exports on its own", explained Omar Chaib, Marketing Director of Tanger Free Zone, "with a value of 1.5 billion euros".
Italian companies are at the moment just 13, especially in the paramedical and textile sectors and if France today accounts for 44% of foreign investments in Morocco, followed by Spain, Italy only accounts for 3.2% of this amount.
Among the advantages for the companies that set up shop in the free exchange zone are tax-free circulation, production, consumption, imports and exports, the fact that goods coming in or going out are not subject to laws regarding foreign trade control and the exchange freedom valid for industrial and commercial operations and services abroad.
