Morocco Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan represented his father HM King Mohammed VI at the ceremony to launch port operations of the new Tangier Med II port, a platform that will enable the Tangier Med port complex to become the leading port and first capacity in the Mediterranean.
This new port, which includes two new container terminals with an additional capacity of 6 million TEUs, will further strengthen the position of the Tangier Med port complex as a reference hub in Africa and the world for logistics flows and international trade, with a total capacity of over 9 million containers.
It consolidates Morocco's influence in the Euro-Mediterranean area and in its Maghreb and Arab environment, enhances its vocation as a hub for trade between Europe and Africa, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and at the same time strengthens its central role as an active partner in international trade and well integrated country into the global economy.
The official launching ceremony of the port operations of the Tangier Med II port started with the screening of an institutional film highlighting the different stages of the construction of the Tangier Med complex, as well as HM King Mohammed VI's constant support for this project, which provides the North Region with a solid international economic backbone, thus enabling it to develop its rich potential and make it a model for integrated regional development.
Afterwards, president of the Tangier-Mediterranean special Agency, Fouad Brini, delivered a speech in which he stressed the relevance of HM the King's original vision for this strategic project and the Sovereign's right choice of location on the Strait, at the crossroads of maritime routes.
A real cause for pride, Tangier Med has succeeded in connecting Morocco to 77 countries and 186 ports, thus helping to establish the Kingdom on the international maritime scene and to raise it from 83rd to 17th place in the ranking of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
This structuring project also includes several business areas that have seen the establishment of more than 912 companies in the industrial, logistics and service sectors, and have created more than 75,000 direct jobs.
Tangier Med aims at development of new facilitation zones
Tangier Med's achievements and the prospects for its development by 2025, in this context, an ambitious new investment program of 9 billion dirhams which aims to strengthen both Moroccan and continental logistics competitiveness and contribute to promoting Morocco's role as a major player in global logistical corridors.
As part of the momentum initiated by HM the King for Tangier Med, this program includes extensions of port processing capacities and the development of new facilitation zones to support the growth of Moroccan industrial and agricultural exports.
This development momentum in the Northern region of the Kingdom, a real territory of opportunities, is experiencing a new acceleration thanks to the new ambitious project of the Mohammed VI Tangier Tech City, whose development will be carried out in perfect synergy with the port and logistics projects of Tangier Med.
According to the executive chairman of the AP Møller-Maersk group, operator in charge of terminal operations, after paying tribute to the vision of HM the King since the start of the project and confirmed the renewed trust through the group’s commitment to invest nearly 10 billion dirhams in the new terminal at the Tangier Med II port, which uses the best technologies and will be one of the most strategic internationally for the global maritime leader Maersk.
Tangier-Med port placed Morocco as one of the he largest maritime nations in the world
The Tangiers Mediterranean port complex has placed Morocco among the largest maritime nations in the world. Morocco has the largest capacity in the Mediterranean, before the inauguration of the Tanger-Med port complex; Morocco was not included in the major maps of the maritime world. Today, Morocco is a must and Tangier-Med is unavoidable.
The launch of Tangier-Med II consolidates the Kingdom of Morocco's anchoring in the Euro-Mediterranean area and in its Maghreb and Arab environment, enhancing its vocation as a pole of exchange between Europe and Africa, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and at the same time strengthen its central role as an active partner in international trade and well integrated with the global economy.
The port Complex provides the Kingdom with world-class infrastructure on the Strait of Gibraltar and makes Morocco a leading port and industrial player in Africa and the Mediterranean.
The far-sighted decision of the Sovereign to launch studies and then the work of the port Tanger Med 2, from the end of the previous decade, when the most developed economies were in crisis, and in the grip of doubt, allowed Tangier Med to tripling its capacity, from 3 million to 9 million containers per year, he continued, noting that Tangier Med is today the first port capacity in the Mediterranean.
In the same year, Tanger Med 1 port processed 3.4 million containers, which made it the first port in Africa, ahead of Saïd Port on the Suez Canal and Durban in South Africa. Tanger Med was the first African port to obtain the "EcoPorts" label, which distinguishes facilities that meet the environmental standards of the European Sea Ports Organization (ESPO). Moreover, more than 88 billion dirhams have been invested, including 53 billion dirhams by private operators so far.