Defense industry : Morocco wants to impose an offset agreement on its suppliers

Morocco is planning to develop its defense industry by making its suppliers share their maintenance technology and know-how with the Royal Armed Forces, Morocco’s Minister-Delegate for National Defense said.

The Kingdom «seeks to develop the maintenance of military equipment by imposing, as much as possible, on its suppliers the need of sharing the maintenance technology of the purchased equipment», reports al3omk, quoting the minister.

The government official explained that his ministry «is asking companies with which it has contracts to open factories in Morocco specialized in these areas or invest in other sectors», saying that this «falls within the framework of industrial compensation», the same source adds.

Loudiyi pointed out that his department is working in coordination with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on «industrial compensation». A concept that Morocco has already experimented with Alstom; the railway group now operates factories in Casablanca and Fez.

In a 2015 study conducted by American firm Ford and Sullivan, Morocco was ranked among the countries that would have a military industry in the next decade. The list also included Kuwait, Colombia, Malaysia and Singapore.