MOROCCO
A SUPPLEMENT TO EUROMONEY/FEBRUARY 1998
Investment hits new highs
After over a decade of IMF-sponsored structural reform, Morocco's growth remains volatile, not least because of dependence on fluctuating agricultural production. The good news is that the country is attracting unprecedented amounts of foreign investment. Philip Eade reports
Last year direct foreign investment to Morocco reached $1.2 billion, four times the 1996 total. Recent high-level visits by such banks as HSBC, JP Morgan and Barclays indicate foreign recognition of opportunities for project finance and advisory mandates in the power, infrastructure and telecoms sectors as the country prepares for economic integration into the European Union in 2010.
In the power sector, hundreds of millions of dollars of investment will be needed each year to supply electricity to the rural population. Only half the capacity will come from the state-owned National Electricity Office (ONE), which is already spending $120 million a year to provide supplies to 40,000 villages by 2010. ONE has been actively seeking foreign partners to manage generating concessions.
The one notable success so far has been the $1.5