Morocco: The kingdom rolls out the red carpet for French companies

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With its ramparts overlooking the Atlantic, Essaouira ( Morocco ) is today a popular city for European and American tourists. But Grégoire Aubron knew the city before it became fashionable. This French hotelier has been working here for more than 15 years. And when he arrived, finding fresh produce or simply buying vegetables wasn't exactly a pleasure. "When I arrived, there was only a small supermarket and they unplugged the refrigerators at night to save electricity," recalls the Frenchman, manager of the hotel "Le Jardin des Douars."

These misadventures seem to be ancient history now. Because in recent years, the French entrepreneur has seen Essaouira, like all of Morocco, modernize at high speed: "The roads, but also everything that is fiber optics, the electricity network with stable current, and the water supply. These are still at the root of things that were a little chaotic twenty years ago and which today have really improved significantly," he assures.

A metamorphosis that is pushing the hotelier to consider opening a second establishment. And in the kingdom, Grégoire Aubron is far from the only Frenchman looking to make his business flourish. Attracted by the markets for the football World Cup, which Morocco will co-host in 2030, and reassured by the diplomatic warming between Paris and Rabat, French companies are investing heavily in the country: 10 billion euros of contracts were signed last year for major groups like TotalEnergies, Engie, and Alstom.

An economic honeymoon that's creating vocations among entrepreneurs who were previously based in France, like Franck Roguier, whom we meet just after a meeting at the bank. "Now, we're going to deal with credit cards. We've finalized opening the bank account. It's a little longer than in France. There's a lot of paperwork," he explains. The Frenchman has just arrived in Morocco to set up a subsidiary of his company specializing in the design of parts for industry. For now, he only has one employee and is a little lost in the twists and turns of the Moroccan economic world. He therefore regularly meets at the French Chamber of Commerce in Morocco. Like him, 3,600 companies come there to seek advice on participating in calls for tender.

To succeed, French entrepreneurs can count on another powerful ally: the Moroccan government. Temporary corporate tax exemptions and public subsidies of up to 30% of total investment. The kingdom is doing everything it can to attract foreign capital. And the French company that has long understood this is Renault. It owns a huge factory in Tangier where Dacia Sanderos are manufactured, among other things. "There are 1,325 cars produced every day. It's one of the group's largest factories. We're in the top three," says Mohamed Bachiri, CEO of Renault Group in Morocco.

Over the past ten years, trade between France and Morocco has doubled. French companies now employ more than 150,000 people in the kingdom.