Host country
Choosing Morocco as host country recognizes the countryâs experience in organizing international events.
In October 2018, the Kingdom of Morocco was officially designated as the host country for the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. This choice is highly symbolic as it marks the return of these Annual Meetings to Africa after they were held for the first time in Nairobi (Kenya) in 1973. It also affirms Moroccoâs position on the African continent and the MENA region. Click here to know more
Located in Fez El Bali (the old Fez), the Karaouiyne takes its name from the city of Kairouan in Tunisia. Originally a mosque and sanctuary built from 859 by a rich Tunisian woman, the venerable Fatima Bent Mohamed El Fihri, the building was enlarged by the Zenets in 956, then under the reign of the Almohads, the Marinids, the Saadians and finally by the Alaouites. In its time, it became one of the greatest universities of Islam and a high place of universal education, along with Al Azhar in Cairo and the Zitouna in Tunis. It saw renowned guests and students, the historian Ibn Khaldun, the poet and writer Ibn al Khatib and the physician-philosopher Averroes. Its library houses more than 30,000 books that are even more priceless today.
Fruit of a partnership between France and Morocco, the Tangier-Casablanca LGV via Rabat was inaugurated by HM King Mohammed VI on November 15, 2018. Two new train stations were inaugurated at the same time, the Rabat Agdal station and the Tangier City station; two others will be inaugurated later, Casablanca Voyageurs and KĂ©nitra. In the spotlight for two decades, the âcapital of the Northâ, which now shelters an exceptional port and industrial ecosystem (Tanger Med Port, Renault factories) is 2 hours and 10 minutes away from Casablanca, as opposed to 4 hours and 45 minutes previously. The engineering techniques deployed by ONCF have made it possible to build this line at unbeatable costs and consequently to offer tickets at very affordable prices. No less than 3 million passengers transited by the TGV between the two cities in 2019 (The train is named Al Boraq, in reference to a fantastic winged creature).
Moroccoâs energy strategy sets the objective of increasing the use of renewables in the energy mix (42% in 2020 and 52% by 2030). The Solar Plan policy is one of its major and most emblematic components. In January 2016, the worldâs largest solar power plant ever built, the Noor power plant (noor or âlightâ in Arabic, also a first name) was inaugurated in Ouarzazate. The plant covers 2,000 hectares of solar panels and is made up of four parts utilizing different technologies.
No other country in North Africa or the Near East has known such a long sultanateâone thousand years!
The first edition of Mawazine happened in 2001. Organized by the Maroc Cultures Association and placed under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, the festival has seen over the years the greatest international artists (singers, dancers …) from around the world, Europe, the United States, Africa, the Arab world … In 2019 it dethroned in attendance the Donauinselfest in Vienna (Austria), becoming the largest music festival in the world in less than twenty years. Its originality lies in the richness of its line-up, the variety of its audiences and the specificity of its organization, around 5 stages spread over the two neighboring cities of Rabat and SalĂ©.
