Rabat – Morocco’s Ministry of Industry, Investment, and Trade recently released data on the country’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), with figures from 2019 showing that the industrial sector is the largest beneficiary of FDI in Morocco.
Throughout the five-year-period that the June 26 report’s researchers analyzed, FDI in Morocco grew on average 6.3% annually.
According to the recent report, which details the FDI’s ascending curve between 2015 and 2019, the industrial sector represents 26.5% of Morocco’s FDI receipts.
Morocco’s industrial sector, employing over 21% of the country’s workforce, amounted to MAD 11.1 billion ($1.1 billion) last year. Compared to 2018, the industry saw an increase of 27.2%.
On average throughout the reporting period, the industrial sector took in MAD 9 billion ($900 million) annually.
Morocco has paid particular attention to increasing the productivity and revenue of the automotive sector. It monopolizes almost half (47.5%) of the industrial sector’s large share of the country’s total FDI.
The food and pharmaceutical industry has seen exponential growth of 131% and receives a significant 39% of FDI. Following the industrial sector, the real estate industry benefited from 24.5% of FDI (MAD 7.2 billion or $720,000 million), and financial and insurance activities weighed in at 13% (MAD 3.3 billion or $330 million).
Additionally, the chemical industry drew in 3.4% of FDI, while industries that specialize in manufacturing electrical equipment raked in MAD 263.2 million ($27 million) in FDI.
The significant growth in FDI comes amid Morocco’s Industrial Acceleration Plan of 2014-2020. The African Development Bank supported in December 2019 the plan’s objective to create 500,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2020, after approving a $220 million grant in its efforts.
Morocco continues to promote itself as an international destination for investors with hopes of attracting a growing number of foreign direct investments throughout the country.
