Morocco Invests Billions in Sahara Development, Aims to Boost African Trade Links

The Kingdom is in the dynamic of exploiting the potentials of the southern provinces" and transforming this Saharan region into an economic base oriented towards West Africa. "This first involves heavy investments," Franceinfo reports, which mentions the ongoing completion of an expressway of more than 1,000 km between Tiznit and Dakhla, via Laâyoune.

The French media cites another "major project", the future port of Dakhla Atlantique, for a total investment of 10 billion DH (around 1 billion euros), with its 270-hectare industrial zone. This port should ensure maritime links to Casablanca, Tangier and Las Palmas, but also to Dakar and the ports of the Gulf of Guinea, adds the same source, which also mentions the university hospital center (CHU) of Laâyoune, the faculty of medicine or the City of Trades and Skills (CMC) of the city which are part of the "hundreds of large-scale projects" that are included in the 2021 Finance Bill.

Not to mention the tourism aspect, with six seaside resorts planned in the Sahara, as well as several seawater desalination plants, necessary to provide tourists and the population with sufficient access to drinking water. The economic development "of the great Moroccan South" also includes renewable energies of wind, solar and even tidal origin.

The "economic but also diplomatic strategy" includes the opening of consulates of sixteen African countries in the cities of Laâyoune and Dakhla, indicates the same source, which states that "the recovery and economic development of the Sahara are at the heart of the Kingdom’s concerns".