Morocco Plans Tax Incentives to Boost Defense Industry by 2025

This strategy aims to attract foreign investors and make Morocco a weapons manufacturer, according to the Spanish news site El Confidencial cited by Le Courrier International.

This project, which is included in the 2025 budget, provides for the creation of two free zones dedicated to the production of weapons and ammunition. Land would be offered at attractive prices, in addition to tax advantages. Morocco thus wishes to extend to the military sector a system already in place for other industries, such as the automotive industry.

Today, the Moroccan military industry is limited to the production of small caliber ammunition. The objective is now to shift up a gear and manufacture more sophisticated equipment. "It is a matter of collaborating with international companies willing to share their technologies," explains Abderrahmane Mekkaoui, a Moroccan specialist in military affairs, to the daily Les Écos. Drones, spare parts for tanks, armored vehicles and ballistic missiles are among the items mentioned.

This desire to develop an arms industry is part of a context of persistent tensions with Algeria, the neighbor and very great rival. The two countries are engaged in an arms race, with Algeria displaying a military budget of 23 billion euros for 2025, the largest on the African continent.

For the record, Morocco is currently ranked 29th in the world in terms of arms imports, according to the 2024 report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). Its main suppliers are the United States, France, Israel but also Turkey with its drones.