Moroccan highways boost business activity

Positive effects on the Moroccan economy. The World Bank website reports that the MENA transport team not only examined the critical factors influencing businesses in Morocco when selecting their operational bases, but also conducted a pilot survey to explore the impact of road infrastructure on business productivity, in order to identify any potential benefits resulting from improved market accessibility due to highway expansion. The target? 100 companies located on the most recently completed highway links - that is, those along the Khouribga-Beni Mellal and those along the El Jadida-Safi highway, with 50 companies surveyed along each belt. 80% of them were small businesses with less than 10 employees, while the remaining 20% had between 11 and 60 employees. 57 of the surveyed companies existed before the highway opened. As for the 43 other companies, they were created after the opening of the highways. A questionnaire was addressed to these companies operating mainly in the trade, construction, services, transport and industry sectors.

63% of the surveyed companies noted an overall positive impact on their access to domestic markets due to the highway. 58% said their number of employees had increased compared to their previous workforce after the highway opened. 68% of the companies that relocated or expanded their activities after the highway openings generated new jobs, the report states. 81% of these companies are located less than 10 km from the highway. Among the newly created companies near a highway, 86% were located less than 10 km from the road. For 78 companies, access to the highway is "somewhat important", "important" or "absolutely critical". Thanks to the highways, companies have easy access to ports, which are gateways for international trade. Only a quarter of the surveyed companies said that proximity to the market was "absolutely critical". Conversely, many declare that this factor was "not important". For 56% of the surveyed companies, spatial access to an urban center is "absolutely critical".

The MENA transport team of the World Bank will conclude: "Although we were unable to capture the impacts of the loss of agglomeration effects, our survey highlights that it is possible to capture, to some extent, the effects of investments in transport infrastructure using simple tools and analyses".