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IGNACIO CEMBRERO
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READING TIME 6 min
11/15/2018 05:00 - UPDATED: 11/15/2018 6:10 PM
Luis Hernández de Cabanyes, president of the Catalan construction company Mixta África , went to the royal palace of Tangier ten years ago with the model of a skyscraper under the arm that the architect Ricardo Bofill would build. King Mohamed VI loved the project and asked several times if the gigantic tower would be seen day and night from Tarifa and even from other parts of the coast of Spain , according to sources familiar with that real audience. The answer to his question was affirmative and the sovereign was glad of that visibility. In the end, the initiative did not go ahead due to technical and cost reasons.
The Alaouite monarch has always opted for emblematic projects that bring to the world the image of a Morocco that is modernizing by leaps and bounds and help attract foreign investment. Some have been a success, such as the port of Tangier-Med, which competes with Algeciras, and others are still in their infancy as the gas pipeline that might one day link Nigeria with Morocco.
The project raises strong criticism in a country where the railroad does not reach many large cities and where half of the population lacks medical coverage
Today, Thursday, the sovereign will inaugurate, along with French President Emmanuel Macron , one of those companies with which he has been dreaming for years: Al Buraq (The Winged Horse), the high-speed train that will link Tangier with Kenitra (206 kilometers), reaching 320 kilometers / hour, but that will not exceed 180 in the final stretch of its route (90 kilometers) that will end in Casablanca . Mohamed VI and his French guest will have lunch on board the train.
The Moroccan version of the French TGV arose in the autumn of 2007 from the commitment of Mohamed VI to have a modern railway and the desire of the then president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, to obtain some compensation for the resignation of Morocco to acquire French fighter-bombers Rafale . Rabat preferred the US F-16s, but then gave the French multinational Alsthom , without bidding, a hitch to build the train .
The Moroccan AVE in a station, in an image distributed by the ONCF.
Spanish companies such as Adif, Renfe and Talgo or the German Siemens could present bids , which made Berlin veto, for example, that the European Investment Bank partially finance the railway work. Among the subcontractors, however, there are a few Spanish companies such as Assignia Infraestructuras, which was responsible for the construction of 63 kilometers of roads worth 87 million euros.
Initially budgeted at 2,140 million euros, France offered to finance, with a preferential credit, half the amount; three Gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia , offered to put close to a third; and Morocco only had to pay a little more than 500 million euros at first. Sarkozy traveled to Tangier, in September 2011, to attend the start of the work that was to be completed in 2015. It has been three years behind schedule and a high budget deviation. The one that had to be Africa's first high-speed train has already been overtaken by two others, albeit with a shorter route, which links Nigeria to Abuja with Kaduna (160 kilometers) and in South Africa to Johannesburg with Pretoria (64 kilometers).
A few unknowns
When the inauguration of Al Buraq is taking place, a few unknowns persist, to which the ONCF (the Renfe of Morocco) has not replied. It ignores , for example, the date on which it will begin to circulate with travelers , the schedules, frequencies and tariffs that it will offer although the Minister of Public Works, Abdelkader Amara, assures that they will be practically "within reach of any pocket". It is also not known how the conventional rail line will be combined with the high speed line. That is why the inauguration of this Thursday will be symbolic.
For the economist Fouad Abdelmoummi, Morocco acquires "a pharaonic-sized toy" that can not and should not pay
"Have investments been made for high speed to the detriment of the conventional network, thus providing the conditions for the Bouknadel drama to occur ?" Asked the Moroccan weekly 'Tel Quel' this week. In that small coastal city north of Rabat, on October 16, a railway accident occurred in which seven people died. The railway network in Morocco has hardly grown since decolonization in 1956 - some section has disappeared as the one that united Tetouan with Ceuta - and does not cover cities as important as Agadir (422,000 inhabitants), Tetouan (340,000), Berkane (110,000) or Errachidia (92,000).
The economist Fouad Abdelmoummi points out that it is not only a problem of isolated places, apart from the great communication channels, but that Morocco acquires "a pharaonic-sized toy" that can not and should not pay. With this money, he says, 5,000 primary schools or 25 small hospitals could be financed in a country where about 40% of the population is still illiterate and half do not have any type of medical coverage.
Photo of the route of the Moroccan AVE. (ONCF)
Mohamed Rabie Khlie, director of the Moroccan railways, criticizes the "myopic" press for questioning the benefits of the new train. He argues that the impact of Al Buraq will be comparable to that of the port of Tangier-Med,which with its traffic generated thousands of jobs and encouraged multinationals such as Renault to settle in the area.
The tallest building in Africa
Morocco also has a second pharaonic project in progress, but this time the financing (357 million euros) is private and is run by Othman Benjelloun , president of the bank BMCE and one of the two richest men in the countryafter the monarch. The tower that in the end was not erected in Tangier is now going to be in Salé, the city next to Rabat. Mohamed VI attended, on November 2, the laying of the first stone of that building that will bear his name. When finished, in 2022, it will be the highest in Africa with its 250 meters and 55 floors.
No matter how hard their authorities try to give that image of modernity, Morocco is a country of great contrasts . Between this week and last, five young people have died and another three have been wounded as they entered the galleries of the closed mines of zinc and lead near Jerada (44,000 inhabitants), in the east of the country. They ran that risk to extract some kilos of metal and resell it for a handful of dirhams.
The first fatalities occurred in the mines at the end of 2017 with the consequent protests of the locals, who denounce the abandonment of their region without resources by the State . More than a hundred young people have been arrested since then, most are in pretrial detention pending trial and 25 have already been convicted, according to lawyers. A court in Oujda imposed on nine of them, on November 8, sentences of between 5 and 3 years in prison for participation in an unauthorized demonstration and destruction of urban furniture.
"The tower erected in Tangier that was to be seen from Spain, the highest skyscraper in Africa under construction Salé and Thursday, November 15, inauguration of the high-speed train in Morocco alongside President Emmanuel Macron. This is how King Mohamed VI promotes a modern Morocco that does not correspond to the reality of a country country where nearly 40% of adults are still illiterate."
IGNACIO CEMBRERO
Contact the author
TAGS
READING TIME 6 min
11/15/2018 05:00 - UPDATED: 11/15/2018 6:10 PM
Luis Hernández de Cabanyes, president of the Catalan construction company Mixta África , went to the royal palace of Tangier ten years ago with the model of a skyscraper under the arm that the architect Ricardo Bofill would build. King Mohamed VI loved the project and asked several times if the gigantic tower would be seen day and night from Tarifa and even from other parts of the coast of Spain , according to sources familiar with that real audience. The answer to his question was affirmative and the sovereign was glad of that visibility. In the end, the initiative did not go ahead due to technical and cost reasons.
The Alaouite monarch has always opted for emblematic projects that bring to the world the image of a Morocco that is modernizing by leaps and bounds and help attract foreign investment. Some have been a success, such as the port of Tangier-Med, which competes with Algeciras, and others are still in their infancy as the gas pipeline that might one day link Nigeria with Morocco.
The project raises strong criticism in a country where the railroad does not reach many large cities and where half of the population lacks medical coverage
Today, Thursday, the sovereign will inaugurate, along with French President Emmanuel Macron , one of those companies with which he has been dreaming for years: Al Buraq (The Winged Horse), the high-speed train that will link Tangier with Kenitra (206 kilometers), reaching 320 kilometers / hour, but that will not exceed 180 in the final stretch of its route (90 kilometers) that will end in Casablanca . Mohamed VI and his French guest will have lunch on board the train.
The Moroccan version of the French TGV arose in the autumn of 2007 from the commitment of Mohamed VI to have a modern railway and the desire of the then president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, to obtain some compensation for the resignation of Morocco to acquire French fighter-bombers Rafale . Rabat preferred the US F-16s, but then gave the French multinational Alsthom , without bidding, a hitch to build the train .
The Moroccan AVE in a station, in an image distributed by the ONCF.
Spanish companies such as Adif, Renfe and Talgo or the German Siemens could present bids , which made Berlin veto, for example, that the European Investment Bank partially finance the railway work. Among the subcontractors, however, there are a few Spanish companies such as Assignia Infraestructuras, which was responsible for the construction of 63 kilometers of roads worth 87 million euros.
Initially budgeted at 2,140 million euros, France offered to finance, with a preferential credit, half the amount; three Gulf countries, led by Saudi Arabia , offered to put close to a third; and Morocco only had to pay a little more than 500 million euros at first. Sarkozy traveled to Tangier, in September 2011, to attend the start of the work that was to be completed in 2015. It has been three years behind schedule and a high budget deviation. The one that had to be Africa's first high-speed train has already been overtaken by two others, albeit with a shorter route, which links Nigeria to Abuja with Kaduna (160 kilometers) and in South Africa to Johannesburg with Pretoria (64 kilometers).
A few unknowns
When the inauguration of Al Buraq is taking place, a few unknowns persist, to which the ONCF (the Renfe of Morocco) has not replied. It ignores , for example, the date on which it will begin to circulate with travelers , the schedules, frequencies and tariffs that it will offer although the Minister of Public Works, Abdelkader Amara, assures that they will be practically "within reach of any pocket". It is also not known how the conventional rail line will be combined with the high speed line. That is why the inauguration of this Thursday will be symbolic.
For the economist Fouad Abdelmoummi, Morocco acquires "a pharaonic-sized toy" that can not and should not pay
"Have investments been made for high speed to the detriment of the conventional network, thus providing the conditions for the Bouknadel drama to occur ?" Asked the Moroccan weekly 'Tel Quel' this week. In that small coastal city north of Rabat, on October 16, a railway accident occurred in which seven people died. The railway network in Morocco has hardly grown since decolonization in 1956 - some section has disappeared as the one that united Tetouan with Ceuta - and does not cover cities as important as Agadir (422,000 inhabitants), Tetouan (340,000), Berkane (110,000) or Errachidia (92,000).
The economist Fouad Abdelmoummi points out that it is not only a problem of isolated places, apart from the great communication channels, but that Morocco acquires "a pharaonic-sized toy" that can not and should not pay. With this money, he says, 5,000 primary schools or 25 small hospitals could be financed in a country where about 40% of the population is still illiterate and half do not have any type of medical coverage.
Photo of the route of the Moroccan AVE. (ONCF)
Mohamed Rabie Khlie, director of the Moroccan railways, criticizes the "myopic" press for questioning the benefits of the new train. He argues that the impact of Al Buraq will be comparable to that of the port of Tangier-Med,which with its traffic generated thousands of jobs and encouraged multinationals such as Renault to settle in the area.
The tallest building in Africa
Morocco also has a second pharaonic project in progress, but this time the financing (357 million euros) is private and is run by Othman Benjelloun , president of the bank BMCE and one of the two richest men in the countryafter the monarch. The tower that in the end was not erected in Tangier is now going to be in Salé, the city next to Rabat. Mohamed VI attended, on November 2, the laying of the first stone of that building that will bear his name. When finished, in 2022, it will be the highest in Africa with its 250 meters and 55 floors.
No matter how hard their authorities try to give that image of modernity, Morocco is a country of great contrasts . Between this week and last, five young people have died and another three have been wounded as they entered the galleries of the closed mines of zinc and lead near Jerada (44,000 inhabitants), in the east of the country. They ran that risk to extract some kilos of metal and resell it for a handful of dirhams.
The first fatalities occurred in the mines at the end of 2017 with the consequent protests of the locals, who denounce the abandonment of their region without resources by the State . More than a hundred young people have been arrested since then, most are in pretrial detention pending trial and 25 have already been convicted, according to lawyers. A court in Oujda imposed on nine of them, on November 8, sentences of between 5 and 3 years in prison for participation in an unauthorized demonstration and destruction of urban furniture.
"The tower erected in Tangier that was to be seen from Spain, the highest skyscraper in Africa under construction Salé and Thursday, November 15, inauguration of the high-speed train in Morocco alongside President Emmanuel Macron. This is how King Mohamed VI promotes a modern Morocco that does not correspond to the reality of a country country where nearly 40% of adults are still illiterate."
