The vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB), Ricardo Mourinho Félix, will visit Morocco from February 22 to 24.
an EIB press release indicates that this second official visit by the Vice-President to Morocco will be punctuated by interviews, project visits and announcements.
Mourinho Félix’s program includes a press conference in Rabat to present the Bank’s activity and prospects in the Kingdom alongside Lionel Rapaille, Director of Neighborhood Country Financing Operations at the EIB, and Anna Barone , head of the EIB office in Morocco, as well as a trip to Tangier to visit the port of Tanger Med and the company Tintcolor where the EIB has contributed to the financing of a biological treatment plant.
Support for small and medium-sized exporting companies will also be at the heart of this visit. The Vice-President will kick off a new guide on decarbonization in partnership with the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) as part of the “Trade and Competitiveness” program, a program co-financed by the European Union to improving the competitiveness and access to finance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) active in export value chains.
Quoted in the press release, the vice-president of the EIB said he was “very happy” to make an official visit to Morocco “with which we have developed strong cooperation ties for many years”.
“This official visit is particularly important at a time when we are developing BEI Monde, our new branch dedicated to our activity outside the European Union. With BEI Monde, our objective is to intensify actions with a strong impact for populations and in key sectors for the economy while developing new partnerships at a local, national and international level,” he added.
As one of Morocco’s main donors, the EU Bank has mobilized 2.5 billion euros (about 27.6 billion dirhams) since 2017, including 40% for the private sector, for finance projects in key sectors for the Kingdom such as SMEs through local banks, renewable energy, education, sustainable transport, health or even water and sanitation.