The Minister of Economy and Finance, Mr. Mohamed Boussaid, received Wednesday, March 19th 2014 at the headquarters of his department in Rabat, the Vice- President of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Mr. Philippe De Fontaine Vive. Within this framework, the two leaders welcomed the level of the quality of cooperative relations between Morocco and the EIB while reaffirming their common desire to further develop this cooperation.
On this occasion, the Minister of Economy and Finance chaired the signing ceremony of the loan agreement amounting to 150 million euros (1.7 billion dirhams) by the Vice- President of the EIB and the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics, Mr. Aziz Rabbah.
In his speech, Mr. Mohammed Boussaid stated that this funding agreement between the EIB and the Road Financing Fund (CFR), which is a public institution affiliated to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics, will allow to modernize and increase the capacity of roads. Thus, he pointed out that road preservation policy is among the priorities of the Government.
The Minister also stressed that the loan granted by the EIB reflects the confidence of this institution in the Moroccan public policy.
In his speech, the Vice- President of the EIB underlined the good relations between Morocco and the EIB .He explained that the EIB, through its participation in the development of road infrastructure, contributes to support growth and employment in Morocco, promotes tourism and investment and improves the quality of life of the population. Mr. De Fontaine, who qualified the loan granted to Morocco as a concrete action to best meet the needs of Moroccans, was very glad to sign the first loan with Morocco for the year 2014 , in March , which allowed , he said, to consider other financing projects in other sectors such as Transport and Renewable Energies sectors. For his part, the Minister of Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics stated that the modernization of roads program with the EIB covers all roads in the Kingdom.
It is to be specified that this loan agreement is for the rehabilitation of some thirty major engineering structures that will be rehabilitated throughout the country, along with the broadening of 1650 km of roads. In addition, special attention will be paid to security measures users of the inhabitants of the areas concerned so as to be in conformity with the international standards.
It is recalled that the EIB has signed for three years about 1.4 Billion euro of funding for the implementation of projects in key sectors of the Moroccan economy such as energy , SMEs , infrastructure , water, agriculture and youth training. The EIB also approved and launched in 2013, an amount of 570 million euros.