José Manuel Jiménez: “Marruecos está apoyando a las empresas españolas desde hace mucho tiempo”

In the latest edition of "De cara al mundo", the Atalayar programme on Onda Madrid, we had the intervention of José Manuel Jiménez, managing partner of Nantai Trade Consulting, who spoke about the operations of this company in countries like Morocco, and the commercial opportunities that the Alawi country offers to Spanish companies that want to open up to this market.

What work do you do in Morocco?

Nantai Trade Consulting is a consultancy firm specialised in international business development. We provide global export and import services, international logistics and, above all, implementation processes in foreign markets. We have carried out several projects in Morocco, especially with Spanish industrial companies and in the automotive sector which, as anyone who knows this sector, has an important hub in Tangiers.

Our objective is basically to help small and medium-sized Spanish companies to enter foreign markets and, above all, the Moroccan market, both small companies that are taking their first steps in the area of internationalisation, as well as those that already have experience but need occasional help at any given time.

What are the best conditions for someone who wants to do business here in Morocco?

First of all, when we talk about going to a foreign market, especially for companies that are considering it for the first time, that have controlled or monopolised the domestic market and believe that there are opportunities for their products or services in the Moroccan market, we always say that you have to do a little introspection of the company to really see those capabilities that the company has.

Internationalisation and going to foreign markets is something that involves the whole company; from the workers who might be in the production plant to all the managers of the company. 

We always say that Morocco is almost a brother country. It is a country that is geographically very close to Spain. One of the most important issues we have right now is the recent free trade agreement that has been created with the European Union, which helps Spanish businessmen a lot. Here in Spain we have companies that have been working in the Moroccan market for many years, established and developing their business. 

But we are going to look at the Moroccan market from the inside and what we find is that Morocco has been promoting sectoral development plans for a long time, especially this industrial acceleration plan in the automobile sector, which is very important, in the aeronautics and electronics sectors. We also have the strategy being developed in the green generation sector to consolidate the agricultural sector, which is very important in Morocco, and, of course, tourism. All these sectors provide and generate great opportunities for Spanish companies in Morocco.

Do political issues have an impact, or are the economic and business issues already in place and the political issue does not have too much of an effect?

Political issues obviously have an influence, even if we don't want them to. This is unavoidable, but it is true that we see two lines of action: one is obviously political and the other is the commercial area or the area of negotiation between companies. Morocco has been supporting Spanish companies for a long time. We have a large amount of aid and subsidies provided by the Moroccan government, especially in terms of aid for establishment. What is of no interest to the Moroccan government or to other countries is that these diplomatic relations could affect trade relations.

Unfortunately, it should be noted here that during the pandemic period, Morocco had one of the most significant restrictions on both entry and exit, which greatly affected Spanish companies. Not only those that were already established there, but also those that were beginning to do business with Morocco. Trade relations were greatly affected, and unfortunately, when it finally seemed that all these restrictions were being lifted, we had this small diplomatic conflict that has fortunately been resolved over the last few months. So, regarding the question, it obviously affects, but not as much as we might think. Business is done between companies and I think it is very clear what the objective of both governments and companies is to develop business between the two countries.