Mezzour: Welcoming Moroccan Youth in Political Space

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00:00Let's just start here because Morocco has quite ambitious plans for the aerospace sector.

00:05How does this new investment get you closer to some of those goals?

00:10Well, this is a paradigm shift. Thank you for inviting me first. This is a paradigm shift for

00:14Morocco and we can give credit to his majesty, King Mohammed VI. This is the result of vision

00:20and hard work, hard work to maintain stability, financial stability, control inflation,

00:26reaching a growth of almost 5% a year and a vision also to prepare these young people and the skills

00:37and generalize vocational training and generalize engineering in all the country and a vision

00:44to enter into energy transition. And this were the key major aspect that made Morocco have been

00:52selected by Saffron among other countries. So good skills, stability and energy, renewable energy.

01:01Is the goal still 2030 for a locally assembled plane to take off? Does this get you there?

01:10Well, the first aircraft engine will be produced, I think, by 2027, 2028,

01:17but the full capacity will be reached by 2030. It will be among five countries in the world to produce

01:24aircraft engine of that level. And this is like reaching the semifinal of the World Cup in manufacturing.

01:32Let's talk about the World Cup and the situation in Morocco right now, because you mentioned the youth.

01:38A lot of the frustration has been too much focus on investment to the World Cup,

01:42not enough focus in other sectors. How do you respond to that?

01:47Well, the same youth won the World Cup, the football World Cup last Sunday, and we are celebrating them.

01:54We're very proud of them. So response is welcoming them in the political space,

02:00making it easier for them to join the election, to join the public debate in the institution,

02:06and providing them financial support to get candidates to the election, 75% support,

02:13financial support of their expenses to get candidates and making it easier for them to be candidates

02:19and propose their solutions. And the second one is accelerating the reforms in education and health,

02:28allocating $14 billion budget for these two major and essential sectors and integrating 27,000 additional

02:40human resources to provide a better health and education service.

02:47What does this say about potentially jobs in the manufacturing sector in Morocco? Are you at where you want

02:53to be? Or do you think there needs to be increased investment potentially to have more jobs accessible?

03:00We're having 1 million capabilities and 1 million Moroccans working in the manufacturing sector.

03:08We need to add and we're planning to add 500 additional jobs in the sector and we need more investment.

03:15We have a plan and we are executing it. We have trusted partners like Safran, like others,

03:22that trust in Morocco, that are investing more and more in Morocco and we are building value chains for cars,

03:29we are building value chains for textile, we are building value chains for EV and we are very confident

03:36that the manufacturing sector will be a good sector to create better and good jobs.

03:41Who are some of those other partners you're speaking with? We saw President Xi visiting visiting the

03:48kingdom. Is China still a reliable partner for the kingdom? Morocco is working with everyone. China is

03:56a good partner. Europe is a good partner. America is a good partner. Good partners are partners that are

04:03trusting in the Moroccan platform as a hub for the world and that are creating good jobs in Morocco.

04:09But where do you look to then for more investment if that is in fact what you need?

04:16Yeah, we are investing and co-investing with them in the automotive value chain, which is our first sector.

04:24We are having an installed capacity to produce more than 1 million cars in Morocco and we are moving this capacity

04:31and we're planning to move this capacity to 1.5 and 2 million. We are building the EV battery value chain with all our partners,

04:39to deliver batteries for more than 1 million cars. And we are investing and attracting investors in the hydrogen value chain,

04:49where we have a lot of interest in Morocco. We are attracting investment in the aerospace industry, where only with this project,

04:58with this saffron project, we are planning to double our exports. So Morocco is very, very attractive for partners.

05:05It has a vision, it has a plan and it's executing it as a reliable and competitive platform.

05:14What about when people say Morocco domestically focuses, at least in manufacturing, on internal combustion engines?

05:22You mentioned EVs. How do you balance the scales a bit better?

05:27So we will be the only solution outside of China in the region to produce the complete value chain of battery,

05:37from the component, from the material, the basic material to the car. And we are already producing precursors,

05:44we will produce cathodes, we will produce cells, and we are launching, and our gigafactory is under construction.

05:52So Morocco is moving at a rapid pace to deploy its capability to build EV.

06:01We are already producing EV, but to build batteries for EV in the next months, not in the next years.

06:07So

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