Morocco Unveils Ambitious Plan to Transform Dakhla-Lagouira Region into North African Economic Hub

New ports in Dakhla and Lagouira, logistics and commercial zones, urbanization project of Lagouira... The construction of several logistics and commercial zones on an area of 30 hectares in a zone located between Dakhla and Lagouira will transform this area into a new Dubai of North Africa, writes the weekly Al Ayyam. With a total cost of around 140 billion dirhams, or the equivalent of 30% of the ordinary revenue of the state budget planned for 2022 or 26% of all the expenditure planned for the same fiscal year, this mega project will change the appearance of this desert area.

Tenders have already been launched for the Dakhla-Atlantic port, the Bir Guendouz logistics zones and the El Guerguarat commercial zone. As for the port of Dakhla and the future port of Lagouira, the contracts have already been awarded. "With the launch of all these infrastructure projects in the area, the future urbanization of the city is becoming increasingly evident. It should start first with the construction of a port for tourism purposes that should attract tourists and complement the tourist offer of Dakhla. The rest will come later," says the president of the municipality.

According to a government source, this desire to transform the region is a new concrete response from Morocco to the theses of the Polisario independence movement, i.e. "economic development". Rabat is thus following in the footsteps of Rome where Sicily claimed its independence from Italy for 50 years, but finally gave it up in the early 1990s after the transformation of the island into a real economic hub.