Morocco-US: MCC funds development of three new industrial parks
The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) will fund the development of three new industrial parks in Had Soualem, Bouznika and Sahel Lakhyayta, reports L’Economiste daily.
The MCA-Morocco Agency has already launched tenders for the planning, development and management of these three parks, to extend over 140 hectares.
The parks are aimed to attract investment and create qualified employment opportunities in the industrial sector.
L’Economiste daily specifies that interested companies have until September 17 to submit their bids and that the successful candidates will sign a 30-year partnership agreement with the government for the Had Soualem and Sahel Lakhyayta sites and 15 years for the Bouznika site.
Moreover, the MCA-Morocco Agency invites potentially qualified and interested bidders to submit their bids for the planning, development and management of the three pilot industrial zones, according to a public-private partnership model.
The public partner will have to ensure the mobilization of the real estate that has to be connected to all the necessary off-site infrastructure, according to the best international standards, to obtain the required authorizations and to upgrade the industrial zones.
For its part, the private partner will have to pay the acquisition price of the land base as well as a lump sum, to carry out the necessary in-situ developments, or to ensure the marketing and management of the industrial zone according to high quality standards and in compliance with the environmental and social standards of the MCC.
The industrial parks development are part of the three activities of the Land Productivity Project provided for in the MCC compact with Morocco.
MCC’s $450 million Morocco Employability and Land Compact supports two Moroccan Government priorities that will contribute to economic growth and investment in the country: employability and land productivity.
The Industrial Land Activity is piloting a market-driven public-private partnership approach to industrial zone development management to foster sustainability and private sector investment.
The other two activities of the Land Productivity Project are the Governance Activity, which seeks to improve land governance and address land market constraints to investment and productivity; and The Rural Land Activity, which is meant to develop a faster and more inclusive process for granting titles on irrigated collective lands to individual men and women smallholder farmers and their families who currently farm the land.
