Moroccan Minister of Industry: We will Cover 8% of UK's Electricity Needs

 Moroccan Minister of Industry and Trade Ryad Mezzour (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Moroccan Minister of Industry and Trade Ryad Mezzour (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Moroccan Minister of Industry: We will Cover 8% of UK's Electricity Needs

 Moroccan Minister of Industry and Trade Ryad Mezzour (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Moroccan Minister of Industry and Trade Ryad Mezzour (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Moroccan Minister of Industry and Trade Ryad Mezzour said that his country was working to provide the United Kingdom with 8% of its total electrical needs, from low-cost renewable energy sources.

In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat on the sidelines of a visit to London, Mezzour emphasized the importance of the huge XLinks energy project, which links Morocco with Britain, with the participation of ACWA Power.

According to the minister, the project aims to provide about 8% of electricity in the UK from Moroccan production, and to secure nearly 7 million British homes with low-cost electricity by 2030, through four direct submarine cables stretching over a distance of more than 3,800 km.

- Energy Diversity -

Morocco has emerged as one of the most important producers of renewable energy around the world, and has adhered to the Paris climate agreement, which aims to contain global warming by 1.5 degrees.

“We don’t have a large stock of hydrocarbons, so we have looked for our competitive advantage in renewables. Today, we are among the top three countries in the world to produce renewable energies, along with Chile and the Australian West Coast,” Mezzour underlined.

“We are committed to an energy mix to generate electricity. We aim to produce 52 percent of our electricity from renewable sources by 2030.”

- Inflation -

On a different note, the minister said that his country succeeded in controlling inflation and ensuring food supplies, despite the global challenges that resulted from the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war.

In the past years, Morocco focused on the development on the local industry, which was reflected in the success of the Made in Morocco label to access international markets.

Mezzour noted that ''Made in Morocco'' was a three-pronged concept.

“A product made in Morocco is first of all a product with at least 40 percent of its added value made locally.”

As for the second axis, it revolves around quality.

“This means that the product complies with international quality standards,” he said, adding: “Third, Made in Morocco is a brand that includes different products, with a clear identity based on competitiveness and quality in all its aspects.”

- Food security -

Asked about threats to food security, in the wake of the Ukraine war, Mezzour said: “Morocco is a country that was built over twelve centuries on the basis of ensuring food security. Moroccans sometimes refer to their country as “the store”, in reference to Morocco’s ability to store and provide its population with food, in appropriate quantities and prices, even when supplies are declining.”

Today, although inflation has caused the prices of certain products and some foodstuffs such as oil to rise, manufacturers are deploying huge efforts to ensure permanent availability, according to Mezzour.

“The prices have witnessed a controlled development, thanks to a responsible relationship between manufacturers, residents and customers,” he added.

On the other hand, the minister said that Morocco was witnessing very complex climatic conditions, with a significant decrease in rainfall this year, which prevented the country to achieve the usual levels of production.

“Despite these factors, we were able to provide products, control inflation, and subsidize the prices of basic foodstuffs such as bread and sugar,” he emphasized.

- The aviation industry -

Today, the Moroccan aviation industry is one of the “most dynamic in the world,” and one of the most competitive, according to Mezzour.

“Today, Morocco can manufacture 42 percent of aircraft with highly advanced technologies, which is unique in the world,” he noted.

In this context, at the Farnborough Air Show in London, Morocco signed a Memorandum of Understanding with “one of the largest airlines in the world, Collins, to develop an integrated system in which we jointly commit to developing a network of suppliers.”

“This will allow Collins to invest up to $1 billion annually in Morocco. It’s only a first step, as we are working with several of the Collins Group companies to develop similar systems,” Mezzour told Asharq Al-Awsat.

- Integrated industrial system -

Morocco and Saudi Arabia agreed to set a road map that paves the way for the creation of an integrated industrial system, aimed at enhancing investment opportunities and creating added value and job opportunities in the two countries.

Mezzour praised this agreement, which was announced during talks he held last April with the Saudi Minister of Industry and Mineral Resources, Bandar Al-Khorayef.

“Rabat and Riyadh benefit from strong ties to promote integration between the two countries’ industrial platforms.... This cooperation will allow both platforms to improve their competitiveness, growth and access to other markets,” he stressed.

“Saudi Arabia, and other Gulf countries, possess important raw materials, whether in the field of energy or minerals such as aluminum and others, the development of which may constitute an opportunity, especially in the automotive and aviation industries. For its part, Saudi Arabia is developing a huge and interesting industrial platform, which can benefit from Moroccan suppliers.”



World Breathes Sigh of Relief as Trump Spares Fed, IMF

US President Donald Trump speaks to members of press onboard Air Force One on a flight to Fiumicino Airport near Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, April 25, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks to members of press onboard Air Force One on a flight to Fiumicino Airport near Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, April 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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World Breathes Sigh of Relief as Trump Spares Fed, IMF

US President Donald Trump speaks to members of press onboard Air Force One on a flight to Fiumicino Airport near Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, April 25, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks to members of press onboard Air Force One on a flight to Fiumicino Airport near Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, April 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Global policymakers gathering in Washington this week breathed a collective sigh of relief that the US-centric economic order that prevailed for the past 80 years was not collapsing just yet despite Donald Trump's inward-looking approach.

The Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were dominated by trade talks, which also brought some de-escalatory statements from Washington about its relations with China.

But some deeper questions hovered over central bankers and finance ministers after Trump's attacks on international institutions and the Federal Reserve: can we still count on the US dollar as the world's safe haven and on the two lenders that have supported the international economic system since the end of World War Two?

Conversations with dozens of policymakers from all over the world revealed generalized relief at Trump’s scaling back his threats to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the guardian of the dollar’s international status whom he had previously described as a "major loser".

And many also saw a silver lining in US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s call to reshape the IMF and World Bank according to Trump's priorities because it implied that the United States was not about to pull out of the two lenders that it helped create at the Bretton Woods conference of 1944.

"This week was one of cautious relief," Austria's central bank governor Robert Holzmann said. "There was a turn (in the US administration's stance) but I fret this may not be the last. I keep my reservations."

A politicization of the Fed and, to a lesser extent, the hollowing out of the IMF and World Bank are almost too much to fathom for most officials.

Deprived of a lender of last resort, some $25 trillion of bonds and loans issued abroad would be called into question.

NO ALTERNATIVE

At the heart of policymakers' concerns is that there is no ready alternative to the United States as the world's financial hegemon - a situation that economists know as the Kindleberger Trap after renowned historian Charles Kindleberger.

To be sure, the euro, a distant-second reserve currency, is gaining popularity in light of the European Union's newly found status as an island of relative stability.

But policymakers who spoke to Reuters were adamant that the European single currency was not ready yet to dethrone the dollar and could at best hope to add a little to its 20% share of the world's reserves.

Of the 20 countries that share the euro only Germany has the credit rating and the size that investors demand from a safe haven.

Some other members are highly indebted and prone to bouts of political and financial turmoil - most recently in France last year - which raise lingering questions about the bloc's long-term viability.

And the euro zone's geographical proximity to Russia - particularly the three Baltic countries that were once part of the Soviet Union - cast an even more sinister shadow.

With Japan now too small and China's heavily managed currency in an even worse position, this left no alternative to the dollar system underpinned by the Fed and the two Bretton Woods institutions.

In fact, the IMF and the World Bank could scarcely survive if their largest shareholder, the United States, pulled out, officials said.

"The US is absolutely crucial for multilateral institutions," Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski told Reuters. "We're happy they remain."

Still, few expected to go back to the old status quo and thorny issues were likely to await, such as widespread dependence on US firms for a number of key services from credit cards to satellites.

But some observers argued that the market turmoil of the past few weeks, which saw US bonds, shares and the currency sell off sharply, might have been a shot in the arm as it forced a change of tack by the administration.

"When President Trump talked about firing Jay Powell, the fact that markets reacted so vigorously to that ended up being a disciplining reality just reminding the administration that, if you cross that line, it could have some very severe implications," said Nathan Sheets, global chief economist at Citi.