The loan would finance the expansion and upgrading of 98 km long highway linking Casablanca and Rabat.

Autoroutes du Maroc (ADM) plans to widen the Rabat-Casablanca highway and build about 41km highway bypass in Rabat, to be completed in 2012 and 2013.

The amount of the loan is half the overall cost of the project, which the two parties deem will help relieve congestion and guarantee security to the motorway traffic at the level of Casablanca-Rabat.

The motorway network will give a boost to Morocco’s economy by cutting logistics costs, linking the country’s main economic centres and opening up surrounding areas.

The loan will also be augmented by technical assistance, in the form of a grant, to improve road safety, bringing it into line with the standards recently imposed within the European Union.

The EIB plans to double its lending to Morocco to 540 million euro this year from the previous year. Over the past 15 years, the EIB has lent Morocco 850 million Euros for road construction. However, with this agreement the EIB will have made available more than half a billion euro, an unprecedented level of support to the Moroccan economy.

This loan also fits in with EIB’s twofold strategy of fostering the private sector and creating an investment-friendly environment in the Mediterranean partner countries.

In 2009, Morocco had almost 1,000 kilometers of highways, with the prospect of exceeding 1,800 kilometers in 2015.

More than 36 billion dirham 3 billion euro will be pumped from 2008 to 2015 to achieve the highway program in the North African country.