China and France Win Key Contracts for Morocco’s High-Speed Rail Expansion

How do France and China manage to crush the competition? In a statement to Al3omk, Youssef Guerraoui Filali, president of the Moroccan Center for Governance and Management, said that these two countries have high and global quality standards that allow them to compete effectively for major contracts. Although the historical ties with France and China are strong, the awarding of these contracts is based above all on the quality of the offers presented, in accordance with Moroccan criteria, he stressed, specifying that the kingdom applies a transparent legal procedure to organize public procurement, where the contract is awarded to the one who presents the best offer, in accordance with the conditions set out transparently.

The public procurement law applies to all competitors, and the one who respects the conditions set out in the law is eligible to win the contract, echoes the economic analyst Ali Ghanbouri, with the same site. According to his explanations, the competing countries are placed on an equal footing, regardless of the economic, commercial and political relations that link Morocco to these different countries, and compliance with the specifications is decisive. The contract will be awarded based on its suitability to Morocco’s needs and the competitive conditions present in the country, as well as the state’s necessities, which confirms that Morocco does not award commercial or economic contracts in the context of complacency, he added.

The Egis-Systra-Novec consortium led by the French Egis Rail won the strategic contract for project management assistance for the ONCF for the extension of the High Speed Line to Marrakech, offering 1.385 billion dirhams against 1.309 billion dirhams for the Spanish public engineering firm Ineco, or nearly 80 million dirhams more. Egis-Systra-Novec’s mission will be to advise the project owner, the ONCF, on the infrastructure projects of the LGV between Kenitra and Marrakech, for a contract estimated at 1.4 billion dirhams.

Last week, the National Railway Office (ONCF) awarded the first lot of civil engineering works for the Kenitra-Marrakech High Speed Line (LGV) megaproject, which includes earthworks, engineering structures, communication restoration and fencing, to the Chinese public operator China Railway NO.4 Engineering (CREC 4), a subsidiary of the Chinese public group CRRC, the world’s number one in railway rolling stock, which submitted the lowest bid, i.e. 3.4 billion dirhams (MMDH). The GRPT SNCE/CAPEP/SEPROB consortium submitted an offer of 4 MMDH, GTR 4.2 MMDH, STAM 4.1 MMDH, China Railway 20 TH Bureau Group 3.9 MMDH, GPRT NGE Contracting/Guintoli 4.2 MMDH, China Overseas Engineering Group 3.9 MMDH and TGCC 4.2 MMDH.