China votes on Tangier with agreement to open electric car manufacturing facility. Following in the tread-marks of Renault and Peugeot, Chinese electric car company will become the third car manufacturer in Morocco with a newly announced facility to build battery-powered vehicles. To be located in the Mohammed VI Tangier Tech City, a co-venture of China and Morocco, it will produce electric cars, buses, and trucks at a facility with 2500 employees.

There are also plans for the assembly of electric trains, but details are not yet public. According to industry sources, Morocco aims to add a fourth major automaker plant before the end of 2021 and to have capacity to produce one million vehicles a year by 2025.

Morocco and Portugal expand ties through 12 cooperative agreements in various fields including energy, civil service, health, culture, and triangular assistance. Once again, the maritime and port sector received top attention as well as tourism promotion and cooperation in the field of digital government and information technologies. Participants noted that Morocco’s access to Africa played an important role in several of the agreements as Portugal is keen to expand its limited footprint on the continent.

Currently, some 300 Portuguese companies have facilities in Morocco, while over 1,300 Portuguese companies are exporting to Morocco. In 2015, Portugal’s exports of goods and services to Morocco surged 18.5% to $766.9 million, while imports rose 12.2% to $211.1 million, according to data from the Portuguese Institute of Statistics.

Equitable growth and income distribution continue to challenge Morocco. While Morocco has had notable success in reducing poverty and some inequality, it must do more to maintain sustained growth and more equitably allocate government funding according to a study by the World Bank and the Higher Planning Commission (HCP).

The report, “Poverty and Shared Prosperity in Morocco in the Third Millennium, 2001 – 2014,” reviewed the country’s economic and social performance during the rapid economic growth of the past 15 years, which resulted in the fact that “This is the only country in the Maghreb that has experienced no decline in GDP over the past 15 years,” at an average rate of 3.2%. However, echoing previous studies released earlier this year, “The Moroccan economy is not growing fast enough and stable enough to join the group of emerging countries.”

Although Morocco’s GDP has the right balance among agriculture (13.3%), services (56.6%), and industry (29%), employment has not kept pace as agriculture accounts for 39% of jobs and industrial jobs have stagnated even though the value of the jobs has increased. “Accounting for 80% of Morocco’s GDP, the agriculture, construction, and services sectors continue to be the main drivers of the kingdom’s growth. Intensive in terms of workload, they do not contribute much to the creation of skilled jobs.”

“Despite an increase in the number of employed adults by 20.7% between 2000 and 2015, the employment rate decreased from 46% to 42.8% over the same period. This weakness comes from the inactivity of women. The employment rate for men is comparable to similar or more advanced income countries, but less than a quarter (22.9%) of women were employed in 2015, down from 24.5% in 2000.” Another troubling finding is that most government social and health services favor the middle and upper classes, due to poor governance and service outreach to rural and marginalized populations, challenges that are high priorities on the government’s agenda.