Yesterday, Casablanca Finance City Authority (CFCA) and Wesgro (the official Tourism, Trade and Investment Promotion Agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to promote investment opportunities between Morocco and the region of Cape Town and the Western Cape in South Africa.
The agreement between CFCA and WESGRO will provide a platform to support companies from each of the agencies business communities in their investment projects, and facilitate the ease of doing business in the respective regions.
The Kingdom of Morocco is located at the crossroads of Europe and Africa with solid macroeconomic fundamentals, modern infrastructures, and a diversity of foreign trade opportunities. The country has agreements with more than 50 countries, providing access to a market of more than one billion consumers worldwide.
Situated at the tip of Africa, Cape Town and the Western Cape (South Africa) is strategically located, boasting world-class infrastructure, top universities, excellent governance records coupled with a commitment to making it easy to do business. Identified as the tech capital of Africa in the Endeavour Insights Report 2018, the region supports thriving industries such as Agri-business, Manufacturing, Tech, Creative Industries, Real Estate, Maritime Manufacturing, and Business Process Outsourcing to name a few.
Morocco is an economic leader in North Africa that investors look to for investment opportunities and South Africa plays the same role in southern Africa. The position of these two countries allows them to serve as a locomotive for the African economy.
Mr. Saïd Ibrahimi, CEO of Casablanca Finance City Authority, said: “Our partnership is geared towards extending our respective scopes of economic influence and opening new market opportunities for our business communities. Our ambition through this new MoU with WESGRO is to therefore enable multiple business channels between the Western Cape and Casablanca. I believe that our continent’s growth opportunity lies within our own hands as African nations: most of our economic dynamics will have to be Intra-African in the near future, should we wish to achieve a high level of competitiveness on a global level.”
“Morocco and South Africa have much in common: we are at similar stages of development, position ourselves as entry points into wider African opportunity, and have a similar optimism when it comes to our economic potential. We welcome the signing of the MoU, and the opportunity to enhance business relations between our two regions and the rest of the continent,” concluded Wesgro CEO, Tim Harris.