Rabat – French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to make a second official visit to Morocco in April.
Maghreb Confidential reported that Macron will arrive in Morocco to inaugurate the new PSA Peugeot Citroen plant in Kenitra, a city north of Rabat, with King Mohammed VI.
The company is one of the leading firms in the Moroccan market. Its new plant in Kenitra is setting a goal to produce 100,000 cars in 2019.
The plant is also seeking to double its annual production capacity to 200,000 in 2020.
PSA considered its plan in Kenitra as the “best performing of the industrial plants of PSA Group.”
The company aims to produce both cars and their engines in Morocco.
Morocco’s Minister of Industry Moulay Hafid Elalamy said in 2018: “Having both the vehicle and the engine made in Morocco makes it possible to have an integration rate of 80 percent.”
The Kenitra automotive construction site opened in early 2017. By the end of 2017, PSA Group had a total workforce of 350 in Morocco.
In addition to the automotive industry, Morocco also partnered with France to make the project of the high speed train, or LGV, possible.
King Mohammed VI and Macron inaugurated the high speed train, called Al Boraq, in November 2018.
Al Boraq reaches a top speed of about 320 kilometers per hour between Tangier and Kenitra. It drops its speed to 160 kilometers per hour from Kenitra to Casablanca.
The French government offered loans for 51 percent of the €2 billion overall cost of the project.
