TangerMed I, seen here from above, has inspired the expansion of ports in Spain.

Morocco’s economic development prospects are looking even brighter with the opening of TangerMed, a new container port near the city of Tangiers. Strategically located between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, TangerMed is already open and will be one of Africa’s largest ports upon its completion. Additional economic reforms are revolutionizing the kingdom’s transportation sector, making it easier than ever before to ship to and from Morocco.

King Mohammed VI formally opened the first phase of TangerMed, which can handle 8.5 million containers every year, in July 2007. This $2 billion new port on the Strait of Gibraltar, on the edge of a free-trade zone, is positioned to transform shipping in Africa and cut the cost of handling goods in Morocco. The massive deepwater facility is already changing the face of trade in the Mediterranean, stimulating the expansion of ports in Algeciras and Tarifa in Spain. Before TangerMed I was even completed, the government and its private partners began preliminary work on TangerMed II, which will double the capacity of the entire complex to handle 17 million containers per year. After TangerMed opened for business, Renault Nissan announced plans to build a $937 million auto factory complex on a 740-acre site in Tangiers.

As part of Morocco’s effort to modernize and liberalize its economy, the kingdom’s port operations and regulatory structure have been comprehensively overhauled. The old government port monopoly has been split into two distinct bodies: the Agence Nationale des Ports (ANP), which supervises port policy, and the Société d’Exploitation des Ports (doing business as Marsa Maroc) that handles port operations. As an independent enterprise that is preparing for greater private involvement, Marsa Maroc is capping fees and reshaping operations at Morocco’s nine older commercial ports. The TangerMed project, vital to the country’s economic future, has its own dedicated management body, the Tangier Mediterranean Special Agency (TMSA).

Cooperation between U.S. and Moroccan port authorities is helping grow trade and share expertise in building Morocco’s export capacity. Agreements with the Virginia Port Authority and the Port of Baltimore are enabling Morocco’s port industry to look beyond its traditional markets in Europe to pursue growth in traffic with the U.S., and gain access to the extensive management experience of U.S. port operators.