The Moroccan Government aims to develop the Country’s long-standing tradition in the leather processing sector which employs over 21,000 workers and has a turnover of 4.7 billion Dirhams (432 million euros). The Minister of Industry has launched an industrial acceleration plan for the period 2014-2020 in order to promote the sector through 40 new investment projects. Thanks to these investments, the sector is expected to achieve a turnover of 7.5 billion Dirhams (690 million euros) and employ 35,000 workers by 2020. The industrial acceleration plan also includes providing financial support out of the IDF, the Industrial Development Fund, giving better access to real-estate ownership, providing a human resource training programme and a number of specific measures for each sector, especially for footwear and clothing, by signing outsourcing contracts with major international producers. In order to promote leather processing activities, the aim is to establish a leather exchange and create a leather district in Fes.
Tunisia: mission by Mazara del Vallo Fishing District to raise investments
Following a first stop in Algeria, a delegation of the Distretto Produttivo della Pesca (Fishing Production District) of Mazara del Vallo, led by its president, Giovanni Tumbiolo, went on a business mission in Tunisia from Feb. 10 to 12. The Tunisian Agency for Agricultural Investment Promotion (APIA) organised a forum for the occasion, in which to present the investment climate and partnership opportunities in Tunisia’s agriculture and fishing sector, which presents promising development perspectives, especially for Italian companies operating in food processing and in the provision of agricultural modernisation systems. Italy is Tunisia’s leading partner in the agro-food sector and this is why Tunisian authorities are aiming to increase their collaboration and orient Italian private investments towards other sectors such as agricultural mechanisation, horticulture and the valorisation of fish products, with a view to favouring Tunisian exports to the European Union. In order to foster this cooperation, Tunisia envisages offering tax and fiscal benefits to facilitate foreign investments such as, for example, the possibility of holding a stake of up to 66% in agricultural projects and of up to 100% in agro-industrial projects, as well as the possibility for export companies to be exempt from paying VAT and customs duties on imported capital goods.
