Expansion
Mr Hicham Kharoufi, the Port Call Optimisation Manager of Tangier Med Port Authority, says there are plans for the expansion of the port’s passenger terminal ahead of the 2030 World Cup to take in more visitors.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Morocco, Portugal and Spain were chosen as the host countries for the 2030 FIFA World Cup.
Kharoufi stated this when he took a delegation of African journalists on tour of the port facilities on Monday in Tangier, Morocco.
According to him, Tanger Med is a global logistics gateway located on the Strait of Gibraltar and connected to 186 ports worldwide currently handling about 30,000 passengers in a day.
“We hope to also increase the number to 60,000 passengers before the World Cup in 2030,” he said.
He said that the expansion, which is expected to be completed before 2028 and 2029, would focus on boosting the capacity of the port handling of passengers and trucks.
Kharoufi said that the port, which is one of the world’s largest industrial platforms, plays a crucial role in Morocco’s foreign trade and connectivity.
He said beyond logistics, the port develops competitive industrial parks for global operators which reinforces Morocco’s position as a strategic hub for commerce and investment.
“It provides a processing capacity of nine million containers, seven million passengers, 700,000 trucks and one million vehicles.
“Tanger Med is an industrial hub for more than 900 companies from different sectors such as automotive, aeronautics, logistics, textile and trade and represents a business volume of 8.3 billion dollars,” he said.
The Port of Tanger Med is a deep-water port opened in 2007 and located on the slope of the Strait of Gibraltar, about 40 kilometres from the city of Tangier, in Oued Rmel, in northern Morocco.
It is also very close to the Spanish city of Ceuta, just 20 kilometres away to be precise.
Its strategic location, at the point on the Moroccan coast nearest to the Iberian Peninsula, makes it a key location on the maritime trade routes of Europe, the Americas, and naturally Africa. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Hadiza Mohammed-Aliyu
