Doha – Hassan Abkari, General Director of Tangier Med Port Authority (TMPA), was rejected from his position after the revelation that he had set up a private consulting business in the Spanish port sector when he acted as head of the strategic port of Morocco.
The decision to remove Abkari was made during a TMPA board meeting taking place on February 27th. This is based on authorized sources, which have been cited by several Moroccan news agencies.
Idriss Aarabi, who previously worked as an operations director, was appointed the new general director of the TMPA.
Abkari’s discharge takes place days after the Spanish media, in particular economically. reported On February 20, Abkari founded “New Port Consulting 2024” on January 13th.
According to the publication, the company was “registered with a symbolic capital of one euro” and would offer “technical consulting services in port service management”.
The official registration of the company in the commercial register of Valencia (Boletín Oficial DEL Registro Mercantil) confirms that Abkari is the only partner and administrator of the company.
The company’s registered address is located in Calle Garrigues near Valencia’s City Hall in the city center.
The Spanish newspaper dealt with the fact that the company’s business activities go beyond port counseling in order to include “purchase, sale, administration, management, transformation and exploitation without financial leasing all types of rural and urban real estate”.
This private company was viewed as a conflict of interest with Abkari’s official position at Tanger Med, who is a main competitor for Spanish ports such as Algeciras and Valencia.
For example the Danish shipping giant Maersk announced In January last January it would redirect its Mecl service route from the Spanish port of Algeciras on February 24 to February 24, citing improved transit times that would reduce shipping by five days from India, Pakistan and the Middle East to the east coast of the USA.
Economiadigital.
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The number increased significantly in 2024, with the port of 10.24 million TEU, which corresponds to growth of 18.8% compared to the previous year.
The report emphasized the strategic importance of Tanger Med and described it as benefited from a strategic location at the confluence of the most important global maritime routes that combine Europe, America and Africa as well as transatlantic routes “.
This was not Abkari’s first connection to the port sector of Valencia. In September 2024, he welcomed a delegation from the Valencian Business Association (Ave) to Tanger Med.
The Spanish Business Group described The Moroccan port as “a key infrastructure that Morocco has positioned as a fundamental player in international maritime trade”.
During this visit, Abkari emphasized the importance of Tanger Med as a “global logistics hub, which consolidated his role in maritime transport and in the international supply chain”.
Abkari has been at Tanger Med Group since 2006 and has held various tasks since the project started. He was also a board member of Tanger Med Special Agency (TMSA).
His successor, iDriss Aarabi, entered TMPA in 2007 as operations manager for the passenger and roll-on/roll-on/roll-off port. Aarabi comes from Tanger and has a master’s degree in trade and management.
He began his career in 2002 at Morocco’s National Autobahn company (ADM) as a department head before he was appointed Tanger Med. 2019 he was appointed Operations Director at TMPA.
The board has commissioned Aarabi to stabilize the business activity of the port after this sudden change in the leadership.
