Investors around the world have their eyes on Morocco and among them are the Japanese. In 2018, government reports indicated that the Japanese have a 17.8 billion yen ($163 million) stake in the kingdom. Most recently, Sumitomo, the Japanese trading house decided to join it’s fellow business counterparts. The business group giant has agreed to a joint venture with the Tangier Med Special Agency. It will assist the northern industrial hub to sell it’s five industrial parks, covering an area of 13 sq. km. Sumitomo’s main role will be to attract Japanese industrial manufacturers who want to sell to Europe; they may also assist with handling logistics.
The Tangier Med location will be Sumitomo’s seventh operation. It also has parks in Vietnam, Myanmar, and India; along with handling the sales in four others, including Thailand and Cambodia. In addition to Sumitomo, the Japanese companies Mitsui Mining & Smelting and Kasai Kogyo have announced they are looking into opening up respective divisions in Morocco in 2020.