On Friday December 5th 2008, Mr. Sallaheddine MEZZOUAR, Minister of Economy and Finance, met in the ministry`s head office with Mr. Philippe de FONTAINE VIVE, Vice President of the European Investment Bank. They talked about the different aspects of the financial cooperation between Morocco and EIB.
Mr. MEZZOUAR and Mr. FONTAINE VIVE then proceeded to the signature of the guarantee contract related to loans granted by EIB to the National Electricity Office (ONE) to finance the project of Electric Networks II? and to the Fund for Financing Roads (CFR) to finance phase 2 of the National Programme of Rural Roads: PNRR II?.
The two financial agreements pertaining to these projects were signed by Mr. Karim GHALLAB, Minister of Transport and Equipment, and Mr. FONTAINE VIVE for the PNRR II project, and Mr. Ali FASSI FIHRI, General Director of ONE and Mr. FONTAINE VIVE for the Electric Networks II? project.
Were present in this ceremony Ms. Amina BENKHADRA, Minister of Energy, Mines, water and environment, and MR. Bruno DE THOMAS, Ambassador, Head of the European Commission Delegation in Rabat.
The first financial agreement is a 170 million loan. It is EIB`s contribution in the financing of Electric Networks II project. This project is destined for the consolidation of the electric network through the carrying out of new air lines and electric posts (400 Kv and 60 Kv) spread over the whole national territory that aim at maintaining and improving the reliability and quality of the power supply as well as reducing technical losses.
The second financial agreement is a 60 million loan. It is EIB`s contribution in the financing of the second part of the National Programme of Rural Roads (PNRR II). This phase 2 of PNRR 2 project includes the construction and management of rural roads situated in all the provinces of Morocco. This is part of a programme that aims at achieving 15,500 Km rural road by 2012 and the improvement of accessibility rate of rural population to reach 80% at the end of the programme.
Mr. MEZZOUAR and Mr. FONTAINE VIVE seized this occasion to reiterate their satisfaction at the high quality cooperation relations between Morocco and EIB and both showed their readiness to further develop this cooperation for 2007-2013 mandate within the context of the advanced status.