Held as part of a conference-debate organized by the Policy Center for the New South (PCNS) on the “strategic issues of the maritime spaces of Atlantic Africa”, this panel was an opportunity to examine the perspectives of the maritimization of African economies, the blue economy between assets and opportunities, maritime connectivity and the management of port infrastructure.
On this occasion, the Director General of the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines (ONHYM), Amina Benkhadra, indicated that Africa has an extremely important Atlantic coast and economic zones which are not often integrated into the development, although they are rich in natural resources, raw materials and new mineral deposits.
The majority of trade is carried out by sea (more than 90%), hence the imperative to focus on various related sectors, including tourism, fishing, the development of energy and mining resources and the preservation of the environment against climate change, she noted.
On the national level, she continued, thanks to the Royal Vision of integration and south-south cooperation, Morocco has implemented programs and projects in different sectors, such as infrastructure, housing and energies, which must serve as a model for the expected development in the African continent.
In the same vein, Ms. Benkhadra highlighted the African Atlantic Initiative launched by His Majesty King Mohammed VI which reflects the emanation of this transatlantic vision carried by the Sovereign for several years, to facilitate access for the countries of the Sahel on the Atlantic coast in favor of regional integration and multi-sectoral growth.
For her part, the Director of Ports and Maritime Public Domain at the Ministry of Equipment and Water, Sanae El Amrani, said that ports are at the heart of all activities to develop port and maritime potential. linked to fishing, exported products, including energy products and natural resources, and maritime logistics, taking into account the relationship between geoeconomic issues and blue economy activities.
“Africa represents only 5% of goods landed and 7% of goods shipped”, and is not in tune with international standards, she observed.
In this regard, she listed certain challenges and issues weighing on the port sector, namely decarbonization, sustainability, resilience, digitalization, Supply Chain and strategic stocks as well as the saturation of port terminals.
Ms. El Amrani, in this sense, recalled the National Port Strategy for 2030 aimed at having efficient and sustainable ports, catalysts for the competitiveness of the national economy, and essential players in the positioning of Morocco on the Mediterranean coasts. and Atlantic.
The director of the National Institute of Fisheries Research (INRH), Abdelmalek Faraj, for his part, underlined the need to maintain a sustainable ecosystem and fishing within a reasoned framework, in order to increase fish production.
“The fisheries sector not only has an interest in food security, but it can also contribute to the sustainability of the oceans,” he explained.
Morocco has considerable potential in aquaculture, through the establishment of a very ambitious and proactive policy and development plans, investment in research and testing of aquaculture prototypes in the Atlantic Ocean. , noted Mr. Faraj, calling for the use of technology in order to benefit more from maritime space.
Larabi Jaïdi, Senior Fellow at PCNS, for his part, insisted on the importance for Africa to access the international market, particularly through the extroversion of economies, noting the need for a readjustment of choices strategies to endogenize the maritime economy.
He also called for the construction of a sustainable port structure on the Atlantic coast which would serve as a gateway to continental Africa, with the aim of consolidating the continent’s positioning in the maritime domain on a global scale. global and to promote concrete complementarity between the different African countries.
In addition to geoeconomic issues, several themes were addressed during this conference, namely geopolitical issues in terms of integration of the region and the rivalry of powers in the Atlantic African space, legal issues such as maritime rights as well as security issues, in particular, in relation to the preservation of African maritime capital.