Eduardo González
The Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, conveyed yesterday to his Moroccan counterparts, the Minister of Transport and Logistics, Mohammed Abdeljalil, and the Minister of Infrastructure and Water, Nizar Baraka, the interest of Spanish companies in participating in the projects. development of the Moroccan transport sector.
On his first official trip to Rabat, the minister highlighted the importance of taking advantage of the communication channels and good relations between Spain and Morocco to enhance collaboration in the development of the country’s infrastructure and transportation and successfully face challenges such as celebration of the next World Cup.
“For the Spanish Government, the relationship with Morocco is a priority relationship,” he declared. “We believe that Morocco is a country that represents a huge opportunity for the European Union for economic, cooperation and migratory reasons,” he added, after meeting with the two government representatives, whom he invited to visit Spain.
With these objectives, the minister yesterday reached an agreement with his Moroccan counterparts to create different working groups aimed at articulating collaboration frameworks for the development of infrastructure and transport, within the framework of the memorandums of understanding (MoU) signed to early 2023 with both Moroccan Ministries. The two documents raise various areas of collaboration in all modes of transport, highlighting, for Spain, everything related to the field of rail and its infrastructure.
In this sense, Puente highlighted, during his meeting with Minister Mohammed Abdeljalil, the leadership of the Spanish railway industry and its willingness to share with Morocco its technical capacity to develop its ambitious plan to provide itself with an extensive interregional, suburban and high speed rail.
Spanish companies, both public and private, have shown interest in participating in the execution of the construction, maintenance and operation projects of the new high-speed lines, an area in which they have extensive experience, according to the Ministry, which it recalled that, in terms of length, the Spanish high-speed railway network is the first in Europe and the second in the world.
“Morocco is in the process of developing a new railway network. It is the first country in Africa to launch high speed rail and is expanding that network. Spain aspires to play an important role in this enlargement. We want to transmit to Morocco our knowledge and our experience in railway matters,” Puente told the media.
For his part, Abdeljalil declared that at a press conference that “the two parties will work together to develop Morocco’s high-speed rail network and will examine the prospects for cooperation in this sector” and highlighted, quoted by the state news agency MAP, the need to strengthen collaboration between both parties, in line with the agreements reached during the recent visit to Morocco of the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez, with a view to developing future projects.
On the other hand, during the meeting with Minister Nizar Baraka, bilateral relations for the development of port and road projects were discussed and the strategic nature of the Fixed Link project between Morocco and Spain through the Strait of Gibraltar was highlighted, in which continue working. In this sense, the minister reported that he is finalizing a date to hold the 44th meeting of the Mixed Spanish-Moroccan Committee of the project to continue working on its definition. Likewise, both parties agreed to develop a common Communication Plan to disseminate infrastructure and transportation projects that involve both countries.
