Morocco

French President visits Morocco

French president Sarkozy is scheduled to be in Morocco to oversee the beginning of construction on the TGV high-speed train that will connect Casa Blanca with Rabat and Tangiers. This agreement was started in 2007 with Sarkozy’s first visit in 2007. The project is estimated to cost four billion dollars and be completed by 2015 with the possibility of expanding the lines to Marrakesh and Agadir. Alstom, a French power generation and transport company, is to provide Morocco with 14 high-speed trains under its 400 million euro deal. This rail project is being supported by Moroccan loans from French and various Middle Eastern banks and it is projected that the rail will increase and optimize trade within Morocco and with France, who exports 25% of its total export to Morocco.

This planned rail system is to help increase the flow of goods and money in Morocco and but Karim Tazi, a sociologist, claims that the borrowed money will have to be paid by future generations. Many analysts are concerned that it is not really worth Morocco going into further debt in to reduce the train time between Tangiers to Casablanca from five hours, to two hours and 10 minutes. If Morocco was on an economic increase and not already in significant debt this project would be more lucrative than it is proposed to be now and would allow the state to prosper more and develop as much as France would from this deal

Liberal

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15103100

http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20110929-sarkozy-tangiers-start-africas-first-high-speed-rail-construction

September 29, 2011 at 2:57 pm