Rabat – Urban renewal in #Casablanca and its projection onto the international stage as a preferred tourist and economic destination will be crucial for the future of the metropolis, according to a panel of speakers who expressed themselves on May 2.
La Vie Éco magasin hosted a panel conference addressing the theme; “Casablanca: Horizon 2030.” The panel gave the floor to Abdellatif Maâzouz; President of the Regional Council of the Casa-Settat region, Nabila Rmili; President of the Casablanca City Council, Abdelhamid Addou; CEO of Royal Air Maroc, and Youssef Belqasmi; Chairman of the Sonarges Board of Directors.
Before the panel started, Nabila Rmili, President of the Casablanca City Council, stated in an interview with Morocco World News (MWN) that the“World Cup came to make Casablanca more dynamic in the short term and will continue the development that this city has been undergoing with the new projects we are working on.”
La vie Éco conference on “Casablanca: Horizon 2030”
Additionally, in response to a question from MWN about Casablanca’s readiness for the World Cup and the African Cup, she affirmed that “Casablanca is ready and needs to be prepared for the World Cup and the African Cup.”
In another exclusive interview with MWN, Youssef Belqasmi; Chairman of the Sonarges Board of Directors, spoke regarding the Mohamed V saying that it will be ready before the end of 2024, adding that “we will not change the capacity of the stadium but will modify the interior spaces like changing rooms and press areas.”
Casablanca is concerned by the implementation of major public projects in order to durably modify and requalify the urban landscape but also the symbolism of the city. “The challenge of the urban restructuring of Casablanca is to position it in the network of cities that count on the international scene,” said Mr. Maazouz, stating that the 2030 World Cup, jointly organized by Morocco, Spain and Portugal, will make the city an ultramodern metropolis.
La vie Éco conference on “Casablanca: Horizon 2030”
The city is concerned by several major projects, detailed in the founding documents such as the Municipal Action Plan (PAC), the Regional Development Plan (PDR) and the Greater Casablanca Development Program (PDGC). Among the projects are the Casablanca-west mobility, five RER lines, a new access to Casablanca airport, the upgrading of the Mohammed VI complex, and the transformation of the Carrieres Centrales park into a green space. They also have planned the addition of tramway lines 3 and 4, a sophisticated port connection as well as the great stadium of Casablanca, among others.
For Rmili, the Casablanca projects “bring together a variety of public and private actors,” evoking the importance of mobility and a “sufficiently dense public transport network to ensure the city’s services and progress. She says this is “coherent, integrated, multimodal on different territorial scales,.”
The CEO of RAM revisited the airline’s development plan for the period 2023-2037, announced in July 2023, aiming to strengthen RAM’s competitiveness and improve the quality of its services.
The various speakers mentioned the future projects that will change the face of the metropolis, including the Grand Stadium of Casablanca, which will host matches for the 2030 World Cup, boasting a capacity of 110,000 seats and a budget of around five billion dirhams over the period 2025-2028. The speakers also mentioned the upgrade of the Mohammed V complex in Casablanca, in compliance with FIFA-CAF standards.
Among the most frequently mentioned projects, was a platform dedicated to the marketing of agri-food products that will be set up in Had Soualem, which will mobilize a budget of 1.5 billion dirhams, bringing together the four existing wholesale markets in Casablanca. Also, the seawater desalination plant project, the largest in Africa, was included in the National Program for Drinking Water Supply and Irrigation (PNAEPI-2020-2027) with a treatment capacity of 200 million m3 per year.
Among the planned green projects, the household waste sorting and recovery unit in Casablanca, is the largest in Morocco according to estimates with a total cost exceeding 3 billion dirhams.
La vie Éco conference on “Casablanca: Horizon 2030“
Nabila Rmili also mentioned the project of a mega-convention center, intended to accelerate cultural development to promote congress and exhibition tourism. It will have a global budget of 1.5 billion dirhams.
All of the projects discussed in the conference have set up Casablanca and Morocco as a whole on the right path towards an unforgettable World Cup. Thanks to the new infrastructure developments, the North African country aims to provide the world the best World Cup yet.
