Princess Lalla Meryem inaugurates world’s fifth biggest mall

On the occasion of the International Women's Day, Princess Lalla Meryem, Chairwoman of National Union of Moroccan Women (UNFM), presided, on Thursday in Casablanca, over the inauguration of Morocco Mall. Princess Lalla Meryem visited the center which includes mainly a meeting room, six classrooms for French, Mathematics and drawing, workshops on cooking, hairdressing, esthetics and sewing, a computer room and two exhibition halls. The princess chaired, on this occasion, a signing ceremony of two agreements on the importance of using women's health record. On her arrival, Princess Lalla Meryem reviewed a detachment of auxiliary forces which returned the honors before being greeted by Ahmed Reda Chami, Minister of Industry, Trade and New Technologies, Mohamed Halab, Wali of the region of Greater Casablanca, Chafik Benkirane, President of the Urban District of Casablanca, Major Colonel Said Jaouhar, Commander of the Place of weapons of Casablanca, and Amal Benboubker, Governor of the Prefecture of the Districts of Casablanca-Anfa. The Princess has also been greeted by Mohamed Sajid, Chairman of the Board of the Urban Commune of Casablanca, Mohamed Mansar, President of the Prefectural Assembly of Casablanca, Salwa Idrissi Akhannouch and Sheikh Ali Al Jedaie respectively CEO Aksal Group and the Group Al Jedaie. Morocco Mall, built on an area of 1,269 square meters, features 350 shops offering more than six hundred of the most sought-after international fashion and design brands, including Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Fendi, Ralph Lauren, Gucci, Mango, Zara, H&M, Prada, Guess, Lacoste, and GAP, among others. The space also features forty restaurants offering spectacular views of the grounds; plus a musical fountain, only the third of its kind in the world; and an enormous cylindrical fish basin containing more than a million liters of water, which ranks third in the world behind Washington and Berlin. The basin is filled with 3,000 nautical objects from around the world, on display to visitors by way of a panoramic elevator that ascends through the water. Morocco Mall, one of the five largest malls in the world, is expected to receive more than fifteen million visitors a year with sales approaching five billion Dirhams (600 million US dollars). The mall also includes a large cinema spanning on 1,000 square metres. The project, which stretches on 10 hectares, cost two billion dirhams. It will create 21,000 indirect jobs, and 5,000 direct jobs. Fifteen million people are expected to visit the mall annually, with a turnover of five billion dirhams.