Announcement of Fifteen Million US Dollars Loan to Development Finance Company in Morocco on October 30, 1968

FOR IMMEDJATE RELEASE ,j . i g\. ~TT::'" AT'' ;' -~~(ONS;~UCTION AND DEVELOPMENT 1818 H STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON D. C. 20433 TELEPhlONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 B.ank Press Release). No. 68/59 Subject: $15 million loan to develop- October 30, 1968 ment finance company in Morocco The World Bank announced today that it is making a loan of $15 million to the Banque Nationale pour le Developpement Ecoriomique (BNDE), a development finance company in Morocco, to provide it with additional res.ources to spur the growth of Moroccan private industry and tourism. With its many natural advantages, including a good climate and nearness to Europe, Morocco has excellent prospects for attracting more of the tourist traffic in the Mediterranean area. BNDE has helped to promote several tourism projects, chiefly hotel enterprises. BNDE has also been active in prqmptional work in the • industrial sector, in such areas as plastics, cement, fish-meal, olive oil, bottling and refrigeration. Established .in 1959, BNDE is the largest institutional source of m.edium and long-term finance for..industrial and tourism enterprises in Morocco. BNDE also subscribes to shares in new or expanding businesses, helps to set up new com- panies, guarantees investments made by other institutions, and discounts medimn- term credits made by commercial banks. By the end of 1967, BNDE had made available financial aid to industrial and tourism enterprises in Morocco totaling more than the equivalent of $128 million. Most of this assistance went to food and beverage industries, power and mining, textiles and petroleum projects. There has been a considerable increase in BNDE activity in recent years. • Total financial assistance approved by BNDE has risen from $6 million in 1964 /'more  Bank No. 68/59 - Morocco-BNDE • to nearly $25 million in 1967. - 2 - Some 71 per cent of the financial aid approved in the last two ..years went to privately sponsored projects and the remaining 29 per cent went to government controlled enterprises. BNDE finances non-private enterprises only when private capital to carry out such projects cannot be found on reasonable terms. The new $15 million loan is the third made by the Bank to BNDE and will help BNDE fulfill its foreign currency cc.mmitments to private industrial and other productive · enterpris·es in Morocco. The loan brings. total finance pro- vided BNDE by the Bank to $47.5 million. In conjunction with the Bank's first loan, made in Decembe·r 1962, the Int.ernational F.inance Cqrporation* invested approximately $1.5 million in shares of BNDE. The new loan is guaranteed by the Kingdom of Morocco. Repayment of the • loan by BNDE to the Bank will .conform approximately to repayments received by BNDE on its own sub-loans from Bank funds, which will not normally extend for periods beyond 15 years. Each part of the loan used by BNDE for sub-lGans will bear interest at the Bank's lending rate prevailing at the time that part of the loan is made available by the Bank for a specific BNDE project. The loan is the Bank's- fifth loan,.inMorocco. and brings to approximately $75 million the net total of Bank loans for projects in that country. The International Development Association** lJJade a credit of $11 million in 1965 for the construction of secondary schooH\ in Morocco and for the supply of equipment to these schools. * IFC is an affiliate of the World Bank. It invests in private enterprise in the developing countries to promote th~ ,growth of the private' ·sector. ** IDA, another affiliate of the Bank, provides development finance to developing countries on tenns which bear less he;:;1vily on the balance of '{"ay- ments than those of convt~l'.ltional loans • • - .o -