UAE inks deal to finance high-speed train in Morocco

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD) said Saturday it signed a concessionary loan agreement worth 40 million U.S. dollars with Morocco's national railway operator ONCFM to finance the construction of a high-speed train between the cities of Tangier and Kenitra, ADFD said in a statement.

Complementing ADFD's first installment of 100 million U.S. dollars released in 2010 for the rehabilitation of the track's infrastructure and foundation systems, "this second installment will be used to finance the launch of a 200 km long, 320 km per hour high-speed train that connects both hubs by 2018," said the government-controlled ADFD.

Tangier is located in northern Morocco, west of the Straits of Gibraltar, while Kenitra is a coastal city on the Atlantic coast located north of the Moroccan capital of Rabat.

The agreement was signed in Morocco between Mohammed Saif Al Suwaidi, director general of ADFD, and Mohamed Rabie Khlie, CEO of Office Nationale des Chemins de Fer du Maroc (ONCFM).

Al-Suwaidi said "our devotion is steadfast, our support is unwavering and we will continue to meticulously fund and invest in socio-economic development projects to alleviate living standards across the board."

Boussaid commended the UAE's dedication toward the sustained progress of emerging nations. Both countries are Arab monarchies and enjoy traditionally close political and economic relations.

The entirety of the Tangier-Kenitra high-speed train project amounts to 140 million dollars, bringing ADFD's current sum expenditure in Morocco to 2.40 billion dollars. Endit