Morocco’s Industry is Undergoing Considerable Development
Casablanca hosted the Moroccan Industry Day, which highlighted the important industrial and economic evolution that the Moroccan kingdom is undergoing, under the leadership of King Mohammed VI. Atalayar spoke to Karim Cheikh, president of the Moroccan Aeronautical and Space Industries Group, to analyse the situation.
This National Industry Day in Morocco is an unprecedented event that we are organising under the patronage of His Majesty. And, as you could see, there was a rich debate on Morocco’s industrial stakes, because industry in Morocco today is making considerable development if we put in brackets the two years of the COVID pandemic, whether at the level of the automobile, aeronautics, textiles, agro-industry and other industrial sectors. So, under His Majesty’s enlightened vision, our industry is developing more and more and this day is really very timely because it allows the different industrial federations of the CGEM with our Ministry of Industry to take stock, to discuss…. You have already seen the issues we are dealing with competitiveness, human capital, investments….. These are therefore cross-cutting issues and I believe that this conference has the merit of highlighting the country’s industrial differences.
The head of government and ministers are here to tell you that industry in Morocco is an important issue for the development of the economy and job creation. With regard to the aeronautical sector, which I chair, there are more than 140 companies operating in the sector and it has experienced considerable development in 20 years, because 20 years ago there were 4 or 5 companies and today there are more than 140, 20,000 direct jobs in the ecosystems that relate to engineering, maintenance, assembly, composite engine parts and, therefore, the development had a growth of more than 20% per year. COVID came along, everything slowed down, but the 2022 figures exceeded the 2019 turnover figures because we exceeded €2 billion in exports, we operate for our European and American customers and we have important ambitions in terms of Industry 4.0 research and technology, capital formation and research and innovation which are important for us.
You mentioned research. I imagine that, for you, in aeronautics and space, technology plays a very important role. What are your objectives from a technological point of view?
You know that the ambitions of the aircraft manufacturers, be it Airbus or Boeing, are talking about a green, decarbonised aircraft by 2050, and this will create major technological breakthroughs, so we are talking about hydrogen propulsion, electric propulsion, so this will require us to prepare for new technologies to be present in the propulsion part and also in the airframes and the structure of the aircraft by using composites, I would say lightweight composites, to make the aircraft lighter. So we are very receptive to evolution, because we make technological forecasts that will allow us to maintain, or even improve, our position in the aeronautical sector, which is a global supply chain. Today we are the number one country in Africa and the fifth in the world, but we would like to develop this logistics even further.
To develop this industry, in terms of training, do you find the talent and is there anything to be done in terms of training in Morocco?
In terms of human capital training, the sector has its own institute, which was created in 2011, so it responds to the needs of our industry. We train young people, and therefore technicians. So we have almost solved the human capital problem by training senior technicians and engineers. We have agreements with universities and engineering schools and we signed an agreement with the Ministry of Industry, the CGEM, the aeronautical and automotive industries and the Ministry of Higher Education, to train 100,000 engineers and senior technicians according to the needs of our manufacturers. So today we are at the stage where university students are going to deploy the methods requested by industry.
Source : Atalayar
