Morocco’s ambition is to make the desert area stretching from Dakhla to Lagouira a “new Dubai” in North Africa. This is evidenced by the many projects underway.
New ports in Dakhla and Lagouira, logistics and commercial zones, Lagouira urbanization project… The construction of several logistics and commercial zones over an area of 30 hectares in an area located between Dakhla and Lagouira will transform this zone into a new Dubai of the ‘North Africa, writes the weekly Al Ayyam. With a global cost of around 140 billion dirhams, or the equivalent of 30% of the ordinary revenue of the State budget planned for 2022 or 26% of all the expenditure programmed for the same fiscal year, this mega project will change the physiognomy of this desert area.
Calls for tenders have already been launched for the port of Dakhla-Atlantique, the logistics areas of Bir Guendouz and the commercial area of El Guerguarat. Regarding the port of Dakhla and the future port of Lagouira, the contracts have already been awarded. “With the launch of all these infrastructure projects in the area, the future urbanization of the city is becoming more and more evident. It should start first with the construction of a tourist port which should attract tourists and complement the tourist offer of Dakhla. The rest will come after, ”says the president of the town.
According to a government source, this desire to transform the region is a new concrete response from Morocco to the theses of the independence movement, the Polisario, that is to say “economic development”. Rabat is thus walking in the wake of Rome where Sicily claimed for 50 years its independence from Italy, but ended up giving it up in the early 90s after the island’s transformation into a real economic hub.
