French public investment in Morocco to continue, including in the Sahara

The French President, H.E.M. Emmanuel Macron, affirmed on Tuesday in Rabat that his country’s public investments will continue in the Kingdom of Morocco, including in the Sahara.

Speaking to business leaders and economic operators at the close of the “Morocco-France Entrepreneurial Meeting”, Mr. Macron noted that the Kingdom is “the leading client” of the French Development Agency (AFD) in terms of investments, assuring that AFD will continue to finance projects in the Kingdom, including those carried out by French companies in the Sahara.

In this respect, he emphasized that France intends to develop an equitable, win-win economic partnership with Morocco, given the many complementarities between the two countries’ economies.

The French President highlighted the existing industrial partnership in several fields, calling for greater integration of value chains in a context of “re-regionalization of tariffs”. Mr. Macron also expressed regret that European and French financial groups were forced to leave Africa “because of the rules and regulatory standards that Europeans have taken for themselves”.

“I think this is a terrible strategic error we Europeans have to ask ourselves about the rules and restrictions we have imposed on our establishments”, said the French head of state at this meeting dedicated to strategic sectors of the future. Co-organized by the Confédération générale des entreprises du Maroc (CGEM) and the Mouvement des entreprises de France (MEDEF), via the Club des Chefs d’Entreprises France-Maroc, this meeting takes on particular importance in the context of the state visit to the Kingdom by the President of the French Republic, H.E.M. Emmanuel Macron, at the invitation of HM King Mohammed VI.