French Group PSA Peugeot Citroen To Open Its First African Factory in Morocco

Bethesda, Maryland, USA, 06/22/2015 /SubmitPressRelease123/

HM King Mohammed VI chaired, on Friday , June 19, in Rabat , the signing ceremony of an agreement between Morocco and French group PSA Peugeot Citroen providing for the setting up of an automobile factory in the integrated industrial platform “Atlantic Free Zone” in the region of Gharb Chrarda Bni Hssen.

The factory will be ready in 2019 and will generate 4500 direct jobs and 20,000 indirect. The new plant will also include a research and development center with 1500 engineers and technicians.

Given its world-class infrastructure notably in terms of car production and nexport logistics in addition to the quality of training of human resources specialising in automobile industry, Morocco was chosen to host the new production plant of French car manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen, Chairman of the Managing Board of the French group Carlos Antunes Tavares said on Friday in Rabat.

Thanks to the level of its infrastructure and training, Morocco is well-paced to attract enterprises that are willing to bolster their exports to African markets, said Tavares at a press conference prior to the signing of the agreement to set up a PSA Peugeot Citroen factory in the Kingdom.

This investment will help he group boost its exports to new markets in Africa, said Tavares, noting that the French carmaker aims to sell 200,000 cars per year to reach one million cars by 2025.

Speaking on the same occasion, Minister for Industry, Trade, Investment and Digital Economy, Moulay Hafid Elalamy said that the new plant reflects the trust that Morocco enjoys among leading car manufacturing groups.

In this respect, he pointed to the numerous assets that make Morocco an attractive destination for such large-scale investments, notably institutional, political and macro-economic stability, openness and the free-trade agreements that Morocco signed in addition to the structural reforms that helped improve Morocco’s business climate.

Elalamy also underscored the quality of Morocco’s infrastructure and its industrial platforms and competitive edge in terms of logistics and connectedness through railways, highways, ports and airports.

The automobile industry’s exports rose by 26% between 2012 and 2014, far ahead of other sectors such electronics (+11.5%) and agri-food (+8.4%), he said.

The Minister concluded that Morocco attaches utmost importance to the automobile manufacturing sector in the industrial acceleration plan, noting that Morocco aims to bring production from 400,000 cars in 2014 to 800,000 in 2020.

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