Mr. Mohammed BOUSSAID, Minister of Economy and Finance, and Mr. Abdellatif Youssef Al HAMAD, President and CEO of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (FADES), chaired Thursday, December 22nd 2016 in Rabat, a signing ceremony of supplementary loan and guarantee agreements relating to the Tangier Casablanca high-speed train project with an amount of 1.6 billion dirhams. This event took place in the presence of Mr. Rabii Lakhlii, Director General of the “Office National des Chemins de Fer “, (the National Railways Office).
On this occasion, the Minister of Economy and Finance thanked the Director of the Board of Directors of the FADES for the special financial support the Fund granted to the Kingdom of Morocco through the financing of development projects.
Mr. BOUSSAID also underlined the importance of the railway station of Rabat Agdal and Rabat Ville in the TGV line. This project is part of the Kingdom’s efforts to modernize the basic infrastructure specific to the railway system, through the enhancement of the functional and social structure of stations able to integrate the era of high speed and accompany the projected growth of passenger transport especially on the Tangier-Casablanca axis.
The President and CEO of the FADES praised, on the other hand, the distinguished relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. He also stressed this institution's growing interest in financing economic and social development projects.
It is worth noting that the FADES is an Arab financial institution founded in 1971. Its objective is to help Arab countries to develop their economies through the provision of loans, technical aids and institutional support.
The FADES actions in Morocco between 2012 and 2015 are estimated at 8 billion dirhams. They involved vital sectors of the national economy such as motorways, ports, dams, drinking water, irrigation and rail transport.