Morocco Develops Dakhla as Strategic Economic Hub to Rival Canary Islands

Located in the Moroccan part of the Sahara, 500 kilometers south of the Canary Islands, the city of Dakhla has experienced strong economic growth in recent years thanks to the will and determination of the Moroccan authorities to make it a first-class logistics and industrial platform, a tri-continental hub, to compete with the Canary Islands, La Provincia reports.

Two ambitious projects are planned to develop Dakhla and its region: the expressway that will connect the north to the south of the kingdom and the Atlantic port that will be built by 2030, according to Morocco’s forecasts. It will be the largest port in the area, even larger than Tanger Med, it is announced. In addition to these two major projects, other short-term projects will be completed by 2025 to strengthen the industrial and logistics sectors.

In this sense, the Moroccan Regional Investment Center (CRI) has been organizing business missions for several months to attract Spanish investors to Dakhla. Over the past four years (2018-2021), Spanish investments in Morocco, most of which concern Dakhla, have approached 412 million euros, compared to less than 140 million between 2014 and 2017.

The Moroccan authorities offer "very favorable tax incentives and exemptions" to investors in all sectors (agriculture and fishing, renewable energies, tourism, etc.). By 2030, Morocco plans to equip Dakhla with a large 30-hectare industrial zone, 5,000 beds and 450,000 airline seats. In just five years (2012-2017), the city’s GDP has grown from less than 675 million euros to nearly 1.3 billion, according to CRI data.