Electronics is a supplier of the aerospace, automotive and railway industries, as well as the fields of defence and security.
In Morocco this sector has experienced a steady growth in recent years with increasing opportunities, namely:
The sector is also likely to benefit from the possibility of the transfer of a significant part of Western European electronics to offshoring in Morocco.
Targeting this market encourages the emergence of new high added value activities such as lighting and energy efficiency, the electrical sector, public and private security, and renewable energy.
To achieve Morocco's full potential in electronics, the state is determined to support the development of the sector through the establishment of an offer focused on the development of speciality electronics, allowing the country to become a platform of production and export to Europe.
Main companies of the sector:
STMICROELECTRONICS, LEAR CORPORATION, AUTOMOTIVE ELECTRONICS MOROCCO, CROUZET, EOLANE, BM ELECTRONICS SYSTEMS
Appropriate and targeted support is provided to companies in the ecosystems regarding finance, industrial land and training.
The Industrial Development Fund (FDI), operational since 1 January 2015, allocates 3 billion dirhams per year for the period 2014-2120 to ecosystem companies to enable them to realize their ambitions in upgrading, development and internationalization.
State support is also backed up with integrated and competitive bank financing.
The ecosystem companies can also:
Under the Investment Charter, the FPI offers partial coverage by the Government of certain expenses related to the acquisition of property (up to 20% of the cost of land), external infrastructure (up to 5% of the total amount of the investment programme, or 10% in the case of an investment in the sector of spinning, weaving or finishing) and vocational training (up to 20% of the cost of the training).
These contributions may be combined as long as the total contribution of the state does not exceed 5% of the total investment programme; or 10% in the case of investment in the sector of spinning, weaving or finishing; or when the investment project is located in a suburban or rural area.
Eligibility criteria:
The Hassan II Fund offers grants of up to 15% of the total investment amount, capped at 30 million dirhams, with the following conditions:
The total amount of the investment (excluding import duty and tax) must be 10 million dirhams or more and the investment in goods and equipment (excluding import duty and tax) must be 5 million dirhams or more.
The investment application must include the following documents:
Tax incentives are provided for by article 123-22°-a) of the General Tax Code and Article 7.1 of finance law No. 12-98 for the 1998/9 budget year as amended and supplemented by the following:
SMEs in the sector may benefit from special support within the programmes developed by MARPC PME:
A free trade zone (ZFE) is a specified area of land devoted to export activities for industrial purposes and related service activities. Each free zone is created and delimited by a decree that determines the nature and business activities that can be established there.
The operational free trade zones are located at Tangier (Tanger Free Zone – TFZ and Tanger Automotive City – TAC), at Kenitra (Atlantic Free Zone – AFZ), at Casablanca (Midparc), at Rabat (Technopolis) and at Oujda (Technopole d’Oujda).
To obtain free zone status under law No. 19-94, companies must have obtained authorization from the local commission of the free export zone, which is presided over by the wali or governor of the region, and must make at least 70% of their turnover from exports.
Free zone status allows for the exemption of foreign trade and exchange controls, as well as access to the following state aid:
Tax incentives resulting in:
Customs benefits:
Administrative facilitations:
The training of human resources is a strategic activity of the Industrial Acceleration Plan (IAP) 2014-2020. The availability and quality of human resources determine the attractiveness of Morocco as a destination, and increase the productivity and competitiveness of the companies.
Amongst other things the strategy aims at providing the ecosystems in place with skilled profiles.
The detailed mapping of training needs - with a quantification of the human resource requirements by sector, profile, region and year - and the identification of training opportunities available in Morocco are ongoing, which will enable the development of a national training plan.
The creation of a skilled human resource pool is encouraged through direct aid aimed at training and amounting up to 60,000 dirhams / person.
Consult the list of training needs for performance contracts signed by end - May 2017
General and sectoral Integrated Industrial Platforms (P2I), possibly benefiting from the free zone status, guarantee the availability of property at an attractive price, comprehensive and diverse real-estate and logistics options conforming to the best international standards, as well as on-site services and a one stop shop for administration.
In the framework of the Industrial Acceleration Plan, the Ministry plans for the mobilization of 1,000 hectares to create Integrated Industrial Rental Parks (PIL) with turnkey premises: each park will include a one stop shop for administration, a local job pool, ad hoc services and a training program.