The National Ports Agency is responsible for the development, maintenance, and modernization of ports in order to handle ships and goods in the best possible conditions in relation to management, costs, schedule, and safety. Equipment investments, the capacity building of all staff, and the appropriate use of New Technologies of Information and Communication all vitally contribute to this endeavour.
With the aim of optimizing the competitiveness of the national economy in general and especially in ports, the agency has worked to improve the quality of services, security of port operations, and the reduction of passage and logistical costs.
The priorities :
- ◊ Preserving and upgrading port heritage;
- ◊ Increasing capacities and improving productivity;
- ◊ Encouraging private investments and the development of related activities;
- ◊ Converting certain ports and integrating them into their environment;
- ◊ Facilitating trade and professionalizing the port community.
Beyond the need to ensure that Moroccan ports have sufficient capacity to cope with changes in port equipment, the development of national port programs initiated by ANP is part of a broader vision that considers challenges inherent to the new changes affecting the overall macroeconomic framework, especially in the field of maritime cargo.
In the field of investments, the National Ports Agency has adopted an ambitious and proactive investment policy to ensure a qualitative leap in the national port sector and improve the competitiveness of foreign trade in the country. Rolling five-year programs that address budgets averaging around three billion Dirhams reflect this policy.
The ANP’s investment is based on the following main areas :
- ◊ Rationalizing average investments based on research as well as the feasibility and prioritization of projects according to the expectations of the port environment and stakeholders;
- ◊ Adjusting port supply to changes in maritime cargo and changing patterns of port traffic conditioning;
- ◊ Strengthening port supply, consolidating the welcoming capacity of ports through research and significant restructuring projects;
- ◊ Preserving port heritage through the launch and supervision of works reinforcing min jetties and docks;
- ◊ Maintaining safety of navigation in channels and port basins by harbor dredging and basin deepening.
Training plans and support for port community in order to upgrade human resources in the sector.
The ANP is fully committed to the training and development of human resources in the sector by its own resources or those of operators in the port community.
- The areas in ANP’s Human Resource policy :
- ◊ Focus on training in new ANP professions;
- ◊ Ongoing monitoring on the evolution of management systems, engineering, information technologies and communication;
- ◊ Maintaining partnerships with international ports in order to exchange experiences in regulating and promoting port safety and security;
- ◊ Establish training programs provided by international port experts.
- For operators and the port community, ANP ensures, via its Port Training Institute, the development and upgrade of all of its port operators’ human resource skills,
PORTNET, an information system for the port community, was developed under ANP project management to enhance the competitiveness of the Moroccan port sector.
In the current context of recent significant economic and institutional changes, the fluidity and acceleration of the port transit of goods is a strategic issue for supply chains. To respond to this, integrating the processes of various actors in the port through the appropriate use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is essential for the development of foreign trade.