Industries in Morocco are set for major breakthroughs, driven in particular by six sectors: two big leaders, automobiles and fertilizers, two middle ones, agri-food and textiles, and two challengers, electronics and aeronautics.
When it comes to discussing the progress made by Morocco on the industrial level over the last 25 years under the leadership of King Mohammed VI, the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Ryad Mezzour, does not hesitate to share what has been achieved, what is being done and the favorable prospects for the future. Thursday evening, during a conference organized by the ESSEC Alumni Maroc association around the theme “what pillars to support Morocco’s industrial competitiveness and sovereignty?” “, the minister took part in a grand oral presentation to indicate how Morocco, which exported phosphate and “a little” textile in the 90s, was able to develop the second most competitive ecosystem in the world in the field of automotive industry.
Three big decisions
“In 25 years, Morocco has experienced a total transformation, planned and built with sacrifices and investments”indicated Mr. Mezzour in the introduction. So what was decided to get to this stage? “Three major decisions were taken”recalls the minister.
The first was to open new markets to attract investors to larger markets, which gave rise to the policy of free trade agreements.
The second decision was to build the infrastructures essential to investors coming to settle in Morocco, which led to massive investments in the various infrastructures, the symbol being Tanger Med.
And the third decision that was taken was to say to ourselves “we can’t do everything, we don’t know how to do everything” and therefore “we are going to concentrate our efforts on priority choices relating to tourism development and industrial development, and even at the industry level we are going to prioritize six sectors, and then three others, saying to ourselves “we don’t want to do anything else »”. Consequence: in 25 years, the Kingdom has multiplied its GDP by three. In addition, we were able to develop industrial sectors that did not exist before!
Locomotives were needed
“In the six choices we made, we needed locomotives. And that was very hard, for example, convincing Renault to set up in Morocco”remembers the government official. And to continue: “for the first time, we were able to bring in a manufacturer that started with a production capacity of 80,000 vehicles and is now producing 500,000”.
Then, fortuitously, Renault’s number 2 who was also in charge of the project at the time, Carlos Tavares, was appointed head of Peugeot and “told them: this is where (Morocco) we must go. Thus, we had 100,000 vehicles in Kénitra, and we had the chance – and this is where the TGV had a tremendous impact – to free up a railway line which was dedicated to it to transport its vehicles to the port of Tangier”. Today, adds the minister, “It has a production capacity of 200,000 vehicles and is doubling to 400,000 vehicles, and we hope it will reach 800,000 vehicles”.
Why did it work? The answer is that “we have reached a second phase of the Industrial Acceleration Plan, where, after attracting them, we must root them and guarantee their competitiveness. How did we do it? By surrounding them with lots of suppliers. The more suppliers they have around them, the denser the ecosystem and the more competitive they are.”.
Textile: everyone said it was finished in Morocco
Regarding textiles, Mr. Mezzour recalls that 25 years ago, everyone said that this sector was dead in Morocco, but that today we export 15 times more. “We no longer export the same thing, we no longer have the spinning mill, it is no longer located in Casablanca but in Tangier, we have lost the traditional operators but we have found new ones, we have positioned ourselves on a another value chain, and that too was a choice because when we are making white t-shirts and blue jeans where China is four times more competitive than us, we could not compete. What saved our textile industry? The arrival of fast fashion and collections which are renewed every six weeks and which are made in small quantities. This did not interest the large Chinese production lines and that is where we positioned ourselves”he explains.
We are not bad in the electronics sector and we can surpass ourselves in aeronautics
Electronics and semiconductors are a sector where “we are not bad”. Today, says Mr. Mezzour, “we export the back-end part. We do board assembly and programming, and we even export to all car manufacturers, including Tesla”.
As for aeronautics, “we did a lot of things, but we didn’t work on the locomotive that would pull it all together”notes the minister. “We manufacture 42% of the parts that can be used in an aircraft, but they go into different aircraft. Today, the dream and the ambition is to be able to assemble an airplane at home”.
Gigafactories : un game changer
On the subject of gicafactories, Mr. Mezzour insists that they represent a real game changer for Moroccan industry and should lead to a 2.5-fold increase in Moroccan industrial exports. “We decided to work across the entire value chain. We started with a cathode factory, which will start delivering its first products next year, then the anode factory, then the separator factory, and finally the assembly gigafactory, work on which was launched recently. ”.
All this, said the minister, “to achieve the possibility of supplying 1 million to 1.5 million electric vehicles within 7-8 years, whose prices range from 20,000 euros to 40,000-50,000 euros, which makes it possible to generate some 700 to 800, even a thousand billion dirhams”.
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