A report from UNCAD suggests, “Maritime transport is the backbone of international trade and the global economy. Over 80% of the volume of international trade in goods is carried by sea, and the percentage is even higher for most developing countries.”

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Tanger Med locates in Morocco, at the crossroads of major east-west / north-south maritime routes, at the heart of global trade and is the largest port project across the African continent and the Mediterranean region. Over the years, Tanger Med has evolved beyond a loading dock for handling cargo and become a comprehensive platform that combines port logistics and industrial activities, developing into a fundamental backbone of the African economy and the anchor of the Euro-Mediterranean area.

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The Tanger Med project is the strategic priority of the Moroccan government since 2003, and it grew into a massive port complex that is able to provide a processing capacity of

9 million containers, 7 million passengers, 700,000 trucks, and 1 million vehicles.

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However, Tanger Med is devoting itself to achieving further, by outdoing the core responsibility of being one of the major ports in the world, it also provides the connection to a land base of the logistics-free zone within the port which delivers high-added value services such as consolidation, distribution, and supply. Multinational giants such as Adidas and 3M as well as logistics operators such as DHL and Nippon Express have set up in the zone for optimizing operations and redistributing worldwide.

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For instance, one of the global leading industrial technology companies, TE Connectivity, started its operation within Tanger Med Logistical Zone in 2012, with 2500 square meters of operating space. With the rapid growth of the locally based customers and Moroccan economics, TE Connectivity has developed into a well-preformed manufacturer across several industries and expanded into a company distributing in a logistics center of 10,000 square meters.

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Moreover, Tanger Med devotes itself to the development of the Moroccan region and offers an innovative industrial hub aiming at uplifting the economy for the entire of Africa. Jaafar Mrhardy, Managing Director at Tanger Med Zones, subsidiary of Tanger Med Group, and the planner and developer of the industrial platform, says, “the industrial platform and logistical platform has a major advantage and offers a significant offer in line with the expectation of global investors.”

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The constituted industrial hub is for more than 1,100 major industrial players across the globe, representing an export business volume of  9 b USD  annually in various sectors such as automotive, aeronautics and textile. Backed onto the port complex, the industrial platform comprises six activity zones and a network of industrial & logistics parks, offering high-standard infrastructure and providing a one-stop-shop for operators.

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Polydesign Ltd, a packaging company, has been involved with Tanger Med since 2001 to serve customers based in Europe. As the CEO at Polydesign, Julianne Furman praises the assistance that has been provided, “With Tanger Med Zones, we've benefited from having a one-stop-shop, because, for all of the administrative paperwork and all the various authorizations, we have basically one place we go and that's to the Tanger Med Zones.”

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Tanger Medhas successfully put Morocco at the center of worldwide trade and it will continuously grow for regional, national, and continental prosperity, like Jaafar Mrhardy says, “Tanger Med Zone is a development engine for the northern region of the kingdom and it's not only a project of investment and infrastructure, also a project with a strong human social and economic impact.”