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  Dr. Nilgün Birgören    Premium Member   Group moderator

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  Maghreb

  Over the past couple of decades, trade integration in North Africa has been hampered by a variety of issues ranging from political disputes and international sanctions to domestic strife, but one of the more tangible constraints has been the region’s limited transport infrastructure. However, the countries along the southern rim of the Mediterranean benefit from a fortuitous geographical position, and in recent years a combination of both public and private capital has sought to take advantage of this, improving connectivity between countries and neighboring markets.
  
  The notion of a fully integrated Maghreb has been prominent since the 1980s, but progress has proved slow. The Arab Maghreb Union, for example, which recently celebrated its twenty-first birthday, has seen only limited success, with trade between the five member countries (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania) comprising only 3% of the total volume of foreign trade. In 1994, the Algeria-Morocco border was sealed due to a political dispute stemming from the Western Saharan conflict.
  
  Another set of accords signed in 1994, known as the Agadir Agreement, which established a free trade zone between Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, has shown more promise, with executive director of the technical unit of the agreement Farid Tounsi stating that trade between member states has grown 45%. Yet despite the enabling legislative and regulatory frameworks, expansion of trade volumes is limited by the region’s land, sea and air connections, which has prompted a number of countries to focus on increasing their transit capacity.
  
  Leading the development of regional interconnectivity is Tunisia: The smallest of the Maghreb countries, it nonetheless plays an important role as the heart of the world’s largest road construction project, the Trans-Maghreb Highway. The highway, which has been several years in the planning stages, will ultimately stretch 8,636km along the Mediterranean coastline between Cairo and Dakar, linking Morocco, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. A TND 445 million (LE 1.73 billion) loan from the European Investment Bank has enabled Tunisia to near completion of its portion of the highway. Markets in both Algeria and Libya offer huge potential for Tunisian exporters, given Libya’s high per capita GDP and Algeria’s sizeable population, and would provide an efficient alternative to maritime trade, which currently carries some 95% of Tunisia’s exports.
  
  Construction on the project has also kicked off in Libya. In 2009, leader Muammar Al Qadaffi laid the foundation stone for Libya’s leg of the highway along with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Italian companies are in charge of the LD 7-12 billion (LE 30.5-50.25 billion) project, with Italy paying Libya LD 6.4 billion (LE 27.6 billion) in the form of investments over the next 25 years.
  
  Extensive progress has been made on the Trans-Maghreb highway in neighboring countries as well. Algeria’s component of the cross-continental motorway, for example, is rapidly nearing completion. The 1,216km stretch of asphalt, which cost some 8 billion (LE 60 billion), is the country’s largest public works project to date. The six-lane route will link the major cities, including Constantine, Algiers, and Oran, to Annaba along the eastern border and Tlemcen along the western frontier. Yet it seems that more than roads will be needed to break the current political standoff between Algiers and Rabat.
  
  Given the high cost of air travel and the lack of high-volume land connections, Maghreb countries have responded by improving rail infrastructure in recent years, with Algeria currently sinking $1.2 billion (LE 6.6 billion) into railway expansion and Morocco investing in a high-speed rail between Tangier and Casablanca. To the east, Russian Railways recently signed a 2.2 billion (LE 16.5 billion) contract to construct Libya’s new, T-shaped national network, which includes a 2,178-km line linking Egypt and Tunisia along the Mediterranean coast and a 992-km line running north-south inside the country. The first 14km of the network was laid in March 2010, and the project is expected to be complete within four years.
  
  North African countries have also been looking to boost their connections to markets further afield. Sitting between two massive continental markets, and along a key shipping route, the region is hoping to burnish its credentials as a multimodal transshipment point for traffic between Europe and Africa.
  
  In addition to expanding the possibilities of regional trade, projects such as the Enfidha port in Tunisia, for example, located just 135 nautical miles from the Mediterranean’s main east-west shipping channels, will undoubtedly increase the Maghreb’s role as an intercontinental stopover for northbound and southbound trade. The concession for the new deep-sea port, priced at 1.4 billion (LE 10.5 billion), will be awarded in the near future, and provide 5 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) worth of capacity, along with 3,600 meters worth of quays and a multi-purpose capacity of 4.5 million tons. The project comes just in time, given that this year 50% of the world sea-transport fleet will be unable to access Tunisian ports due to vessel size.
  
  Morocco’s Tanger-Med container port, which first began operations in 2007, serves as another one of the region’s heavyweight marquee projects. A public private partnership project involving several European consortiums, the port has North Africa’s second largest capacity with 3 million TEUs. “Morocco is now one of the top three African countries in terms of maritime connectivity, along with Egypt and South Africa,” Mohammed Abdeljalil, President of Marsa Maroc, told OBG in 2009. The port complex has also been linked to the national rail network, which will see a high-speed line launched in 2014.
  
  In spite of Tanger-Med’s impressive results, another 5.2 million TEUs of capacity are slated to be added in the coming years. “It will be the biggest port in the Mediterranean, a door to Europe and to international markets, be they European, Asian or American,” Moroccan Minister of Transport Karim Ghellab announced in June. Launch of the expansion project, dubbed Tanger-Med II, was stalled by the drop in global trade volumes, following the withdrawal of a member of the winning consortium, Singapore’s PSA International, but progress has resumed following the takeover of state-owned Marsa Maroc.
  
  The sheer size of these endeavors puts the entire region on the map as an emerging transshipment hub. And while a completed Trans-Maghreb Highway or regional rail network is still a ways off, the start of construction is nonetheless a big step in the right direction. Most importantly, for the first time, funds are flowing into long-needed transport infrastructure projects, both from the government and from the private sector, moving the Maghreb within striking distance of economic integration.
  
  
  ========================================================================================
  
  Robert Tashima is the Africa regional editor with the Oxford Business Group, a leading provider of economic and political intelligence about the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.
  
  • 01 Jun 2010, 8:28 pm
  Dr. Nilgün Birgören wrote: > Over the past couple of decades, trade integration in North Africa > has been hampered by a variety of issues ranging from political > disputes and international sanctions to domestic strife, but one of > the more tangible constraints has been the region’s limited transport > infrastructure. However, the countries along the southern rim of the > Mediterranean benefit from a fortuitous geographical position, and in > recent years a combination of both public and private capital has > sought to take advantage of this, improving connectivity between > countries and neighboring markets. > > The notion of a fully integrated Maghreb has been prominent since the > 1980s, but progress has proved slow. The Arab Maghreb Union, for > example, which recently celebrated its twenty-first birthday, has > seen only limited success, with trade between the five member > countries (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania) > comprising only 3% of the total volume of foreign trade. In 1994, the > Algeria-Morocco border was sealed due to a political dispute stemming > from the Western Saharan conflict. > > Another set of accords signed in 1994, known as the Agadir Agreement, > which established a free trade zone between Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt > and Jordan, has shown more promise, with executive director of the > technical unit of the agreement Farid Tounsi stating that trade > between member states has grown 45%. Yet despite the enabling > legislative and regulatory frameworks, expansion of trade volumes is > limited by the region’s land, sea and air connections, which has > prompted a number of countries to focus on increasing their transit > capacity. > > Leading the development of regional interconnectivity is Tunisia: The > smallest of the Maghreb countries, it nonetheless plays an important > role as the heart of the world’s largest road construction project, > the Trans-Maghreb Highway. The highway, which has been several years > in the planning stages, will ultimately stretch 8,636km along the > Mediterranean coastline between Cairo and Dakar, linking Morocco, > Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt. A TND 445 million (LE 1.73 > billion) loan from the European Investment Bank has enabled Tunisia > to near completion of its portion of the highway. Markets in both > Algeria and Libya offer huge potential for Tunisian exporters, given > Libya’s high per capita GDP and Algeria’s sizeable population, and > would provide an efficient alternative to maritime trade, which > currently carries some 95% of Tunisia’s exports. > > Construction on the project has also kicked off in Libya. In 2009, > leader Muammar Al Qadaffi laid the foundation stone for Libya’s leg > of the highway along with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. > Italian companies are in charge of the LD 7-12 billion (LE 30.5-50.25 > billion) project, with Italy paying Libya LD 6.4 billion (LE 27.6 > billion) in the form of investments over the next 25 years. > > Extensive progress has been made on the Trans-Maghreb highway in > neighboring countries as well. Algeria’s component of the > cross-continental motorway, for example, is rapidly nearing > completion. The 1,216km stretch of asphalt, which cost some 8 billion > (LE 60 billion), is the country’s largest public works project to > date. The six-lane route will link the major cities, including > Constantine, Algiers, and Oran, to Annaba along the eastern border > and Tlemcen along the western frontier. Yet it seems that more than > roads will be needed to break the current political standoff between > Algiers and Rabat. > > Given the high cost of air travel and the lack of high-volume land > connections, Maghreb countries have responded by improving rail > infrastructure in recent years, with Algeria currently sinking $1.2 > billion (LE 6.6 billion) into railway expansion and Morocco investing > in a high-speed rail between Tangier and Casablanca. To the east, > Russian Railways recently signed a 2.2 billion (LE 16.5 billion) > contract to construct Libya’s new, T-shaped national network, which > includes a 2,178-km line linking Egypt and Tunisia along the > Mediterranean coast and a 992-km line running north-south inside the > country. The first 14km of the network was laid in March 2010, and > the project is expected to be complete within four years. > > North African countries have also been looking to boost their > connections to markets further afield. Sitting between two massive > continental markets, and along a key shipping route, the region is > hoping to burnish its credentials as a multimodal transshipment point > for traffic between Europe and Africa. > > In addition to expanding the possibilities of regional trade, > projects such as the Enfidha port in Tunisia, for example, located > just 135 nautical miles from the Mediterranean’s main east-west > shipping channels, will undoubtedly increase the Maghreb’s role as an > intercontinental stopover for northbound and southbound trade. The > concession for the new deep-sea port, priced at 1.4 billion (LE 10.5 > billion), will be awarded in the near future, and provide 5 million > twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) worth of capacity, along with > 3,600 meters worth of quays and a multi-purpose capacity of 4.5 > million tons. The project comes just in time, given that this year > 50% of the world sea-transport fleet will be unable to access > Tunisian ports due to vessel size. > > Morocco’s Tanger-Med container port, which first began operations in > 2007, serves as another one of the region’s heavyweight marquee > projects. A public private partnership project involving several > European consortiums, the port has North Africa’s second largest > capacity with 3 million TEUs. “Morocco is now one of the top three > African countries in terms of maritime connectivity, along with Egypt > and South Africa,” Mohammed Abdeljalil, President of Marsa Maroc, > told OBG in 2009. The port complex has also been linked to the > national rail network, which will see a high-speed line launched in > 2014. > > In spite of Tanger-Med’s impressive results, another 5.2 million TEUs > of capacity are slated to be added in the coming years. “It will be > the biggest port in the Mediterranean, a door to Europe and to > international markets, be they European, Asian or American,” Moroccan > Minister of Transport Karim Ghellab announced in June. Launch of the > expansion project, dubbed Tanger-Med II, was stalled by the drop in > global trade volumes, following the withdrawal of a member of the > winning consortium, Singapore’s PSA International, but progress has > resumed following the takeover of state-owned Marsa Maroc. > > The sheer size of these endeavors puts the entire region on the map > as an emerging transshipment hub. And while a completed Trans-Maghreb > Highway or regional rail network is still a ways off, the start of > construction is nonetheless a big step in the right direction. Most > importantly, for the first time, funds are flowing into long-needed > transport infrastructure projects, both from the government and from > the private sector, moving the Maghreb within striking distance of > economic integration. > > > ======================================================================================== > > Robert Tashima is the Africa regional editor with the Oxford Business > Group, a leading provider of economic and political intelligence > about the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Caribbean.