The industrial sector took the lion's share of investments expected for 2015 with 11.76 billion dirhams, representing three quarters of the total investments (15.5 billion dirhams), said Mr Moulay Hafid Elalamy, the Minister of Industry, Trade, Investment and the Digital Economy, on Wednesday in Rabat.

“The industrial sector remains the principal supplier of jobs with 85% of the total jobs created”, pointed out Mr Elalamy during a press conference at the end of the meeting of the Inter-ministerial Investment Commission held in Rabat under the presidency of the Head of Government, Mr Abdelilah Benkirane.

The sectors of energy and production and distribution of water occupy second place with close to 3.04 billion dirhams, representing 20% of the anticipated investment, indicated Mr Elalamy, pointing out that the tourism sector came third with 3% of the planned investment.

In terms of job creation, commerce occupies second place with 400 news jobs, namely 10% of planned jobs creation, followed by the sectors of tourism, energy, and production and distribution of water each with 2% of jobs.

National investments represent 79% of total investments submitted for approval by the commission, at nearly 12.23 billion dirhams.

“This result is attributable to major projects in the sectors of industry, energy, and production and distribution of water, driven mainly by national groups, whose investments exceed 11 billion dirhams”, explained Mr Elalamy.

On the one hand, an additional projected investment in the industrial sector by the Office Chérifien des Phosphates with a budget of 9.75 billion dirhams and, on the other hand, an investment of around 1.8 billion dirhams in the wind energy sector, emphasised the minister, adding that the American investments and joint ventures were in second place, each representing 7% of the total.

The breakdown of projects by region showed that a predominance of projects spread over multiple regions (fragmentary projects) as they represent 63% of the projects submitted to the commission. The Laâyoune-Boujdour-Sakia el Hamra region had the second largest number of projects, at 12%, followed by the Great Casablanca region with 11%.

The regional breakdown of projects by number of jobs created shows that the Meknès-Tafilalet region benefiting the most with 2,556 direct jobs created, that is to say 63% of the total, with the Doukkala Abda region coming second with close to 830 jobs created, 20% of the total.

The Inter-ministerial Investment Commission approved 32 investment project agreements with a total budget of 15.5 billion dirhams and aiming to create close to 4,057 direct stable jobs.