São Paulo – Morocco wants to enter the radar of Brazilian investors by attracting capital into projects in industries such as electrical, automotive and aerospace. To that end, a mission from the Moroccan Agency for Investment Promotion (AMDI) participated this Thursday (4th) in the event Business Meeting: Morocco – a strategic partner to Brazil, held at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce headquarters in São Paulo.
“Brazil is a very important country in which we haven’t done much yet. In the last, we have focused on countries like Spain and France. Now, as countries such as Brazil are becoming superpowers, we must diversify our investment targets,” said Adil Chikhi, the AMDI Strategic Marketing Development director.
Chikhi spoke to an audience of businessmen and laid out the advantages and opportunities for investors who are willing to operate in Morocco, such as investment subsidy funds made available by the government. “There is a fund which subsidizes any investment higher than 18 million euros or one which creates more than 250 jobs, in any sector. The government will subsidize 5% of investment. It can be for purchasing land or equipment, or to bring in machinery tax-free,” he explains.
“There are other funds which subsidize investment in a few sectors, such as aerospace, automotive and electronics. The subsidy is 15% and the maximum amount is 2.7 million euros. Yet another fund subsidizes investment in energy, such as renewable energy projects, and provides up to 20% of the capital required,” says the executive.
Chikhi also noted that Morocco is strategically positioned in North Africa and 14 kilometres away from Europe, as a major investor-attracting factor. “We have free trade agreements with most of the neighbouring countries. You can sell to the Europeans, the Africans and the Arab countries, free from export and import taxes,” he said.
One of the potential investment target sectors in Morocco is electric energy. The country, which does not produce oil, imports 14% of its power from Spain and has projects for investing in renewable power generation.
“We have a solar power program to build plants in five different localities, generating a combined 2,000 megawatts of electricity from solar energy,” said Ahmed Squalli, the vice president of the National Federation of Electricity and Electronics and the president of the Moroccan Association of Solar Industries and Windmills.
“There is also the wind energy program, to generate another 2,000 megawatts at various locations in North and South Morocco. Both programs will receive private investment. The goal is to attain that capacity by 2020,” said the executive. The projects are estimated at US$ 7 billion each.
To Rubens Hannun, the Arab Brazilian Chamber’s Foreign Trade vice president, Morocco’s interest in attracting Brazilian investors represents one step beyond the trade relations that the countries already sustain. “It is a sign that our relations have matured,” he said. At the event’s closing, the Chamber’s CEO Michel Alaby outlined the services provided by the organization, and said it is available to intermediate the contacts between Brazilian and Moroccans.
The event was also attended by Abdeslam Maleh, the first counsellor of the Moroccan Embassy in Brasília, Malak Sbiti, who is in charge of the AMDI’s Brics Investment Department, Elias Haddad, the vice president of the Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo (Fiesp), and Fiesp director Antônio Bessa.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
