The memorandum signed in Beijing on April 26 is the high point of eight months negotiating the selection of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC). A further six months were agreed to decide on the signing of the contract and the contours in which the requirements of both parties were incorporated. Rabat is committed to the infrastructure of the site and promises incentives for industrial investment and financing
Will the CCCC conglomerate be the right partner after the Haite group's withdrawal from the Cité Mohammed VI Tanger Tech project? Despite legitimate doubts expressed on the basis of the international failures and controversies that led the history of China Communications Construction Company (CCCC), the ministry responsible for African affairs, to which the delicate task of managing the negotiations was entrusted "At the political level" with Beijing the atmosphere is serenity.
"Haite is a thing of the past. We have not participated in it and we cannot comment on it today, except to say that this envisaged partnership has not been successful on issues related to the size of the project and the capacities and ambitions of Haite ", declares an authorized ministerial source that emerges for CCCC a "Long-term due diligence" and "A political commitment to the highest summit of the two states".
The trial, which lasted eight months since September 2018, was led by the Mohcine Jazouli Department in Morocco and under the supervision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party on the Chinese side. "The selection was tough and at the end we had two finalists as candidates for the major players of the Road and Belt initiative", explains our source. "The consensus was on CCCC, which led after a two-way travel marathon to the beginning of the April 26 memorandum."
so far "The terms of this agreement determine the framework of the work to be performed over a six-month period. Only then will the decision to enter into a formal contract be ratified between the parties", continues with the source.
Morocco has already committed itself to realize the basic infrastructure of the site. "We don't need foreign expertise for that. We have the know-how and our national companies have gained expertise that is even exported internationally", we add. Same for the staff, "Since we do not compare ourselves with other countries on the continent that are deficient in this area."
The Moroccan state will also have to Medias24, "Finalizing the agreement under which the state undertakes to realize the various off-site infrastructures", a disbursement of 120 million dirhams for tranche 1 of a total of 2.4 billion dirhams to be invested by the state over a 10-year period.
Then why would you work with a Chinese construction giant? For the Moroccan part, the required presence in the capital of Tangier Tech Development Corporation (SA TT) "Has more to do with the desire to attract new Chinese industrial players, particularly competitive in research and development (R&D)." "What we want from CCCC is a flow company and not a builder of a project that will have to evolve according to the attractiveness of the entire region already provided by Tangier Med, Kenitra Automotive City, the LGV, the network. Highway, the car industry already in place, etc. " specifies our source.
"The project is also part of the logic of the Road and Belt initiative, which guarantees affordable financing for Chinese investors", She argues. And to take advantage of this windfall from Chinese public banks such as the Exim Bank or the development bank of China, the state will of course grant substantial incentives to Chinese industrialists who want to settle in the area. "In the same way as that granted to Renault for its plant in Tangier or PSA in Kenitra", Does explains.
Source link