Mohammed Abdeljalil, Managing Director of Marsa Maroc

Marsa Maroc is responding innovatively to the challenges posed by the liberalization of Morocco’s transportation sector. Formerly part of the national ports authority, the port operations firm is helping the kingdom’s nine commercial ports upgrade to compete with the mammoth new TangerMed container port. With a strong presence in Morocco’s commercial center, Casablanca, Marsa Maroc faces both the difficulties and opportunities presented by the new business environment.

Before recent reforms, the government exercised a monopoly over Morocco’s ports through the Office d’Exploitation des Ports (ODEP), which both regulated the port industry and provided services. Now, the ODEP has been split into a national port regulator, the Agence Nationale des Ports, and Marsa Maroc, a government-owned port services provider that competes with private firms. Marsa Maroc Managing Director Mohammed Abdeljalil believes that the reorganization of the sector has markedly improved transparency and service for customers. “By separating the two roles, things became much clearer: you have one entity act as a commercial firm that offers services to clients, and another that acts as a policeman in the sector,”states Mr. Abdeljalil. “The new port will have a dynamizing effect on the economy. Even if port traffic goes down for two or three years, over the long term the benefits will be much greater.”