Actualités INTA

The Agency for the Development of East of Morocco invites INTA to lay out a Resource and Services Centre for the Region

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Créé le Jeudi, 18 Février 2010 10:55

Mohamed MBARKI, former INTA President (2000/2004), Director General of the Agency for the Development of the Oriental, a member of INTA, consults with French and Spanish experts to define the components of a regional Resource and Services Centre. This initiative is the subject of a partnership with the Andalusian Agency for International Cooperation for Development (AACID). Designed as a platform of services to promote income-generating activities for various stakeholders in the region -civil society, universities, local governments, private sector, international cooperation, etc, the Centre is an integral part of the core business of the Agency that is to spur activities close to the needs of local populations. In its operational phase, the Centre will foster the networking of regional actors and their integration into the Euro Mediterranean partnership; it will assist in mobilizing cooperation funds for economic and social development and it will stimulate the socio-cultural exchanges between the North and South of the Mediterranean area including the Maghreb, but also with sub-Saharan regions; finally it will be a Centre of excellence for the southern Mediterranean region. Its creation should be effective by the end of 2010.

Implemented since May 2006, the Agency for the Promotion and the Economic and Social Development of the Prefecture and the provinces of the Eastern Region of the Kingdom, said the Oriental Agency, was created in the wake of the Royal Initiative for the Development of the Oriental announced in a speech in Oujda in March 2003. The Agency's mission is to provide support and assistance to national and local stakeholders for the implementation of development programs in the Eastern region representing 11.6% of national territory -82,820 square kilometres, and has nearly 2 million inhabitants. Among the major regional projects was the creation of a new development pole "East Mediterranean", in synergy with the pole “Tangier Med”. The projects include the networking of complementary poles: Oujda as a technology hub linked to the University, Nador and its port as a centre of maritime industries, Berkane as agro-industrial centre, Saidia as tourist attraction, Taourirt as logistics hub with the new rail line Nador-Taourirt-Bouarfa; finally, Figuig as pole for eco-tourism and oasis. Socially, the Agency operates in the regeneration of 14 urban and 35 rural communes and supports income generating activities and entrepreneurship for young people.