Jennifer Lopez has inaugurated in Casablanca the Morocco Mall, billed as Africa’s largest shopping centre and among the world’s top five.

After Princess Lalla Meryem officially opened the mall on Thursday, the US star became its first customer and capped the glitzy launch with a private concert.

The sprawling megamall, which sits on 10 hectares of land facing the Atlantic Ocean, aims to attract 14 million visitors a year and become one top tourist destinations.

Morocco’s ambition to become a shopping superpower takes another leap forward with the public opening of Casablanca’s Morocco Mall today.

It is set to be one of the largest malls in the world and home to the new Galeries Lafayette International, the brand’s first international store.

The building contains over 600 brands, 250,000 square meters of floor space and 140,000 square meters of gardens, all situated by the city’s beautiful waterfront.

For a city that prides itself on being one of the world’s great shopping destinations, 2011 has been a stellar year for Hong Kong.

Major brands such as Apple and Hogan have already created much fanfare with the opening of flagship and a concept store here, respectively.

And the shopping landscape was extended further Tuesday as the Harvey Nichols brand welcomed shoppers into its 83,000-square-foot (7710 sq m] flagship in the city’s Pacific Place mall, set in the Admiralty district.

Even though the economy is grim, big malls are opening around the world. We recently mentioned the opening of the Westfield Mall in London and now the Dubai Mall has officially opened boasting the largest number of retailers in the world.

As we mentioned earlier this year, the mall boasts a gold souk, a 10-million litre (2.2 million gallon) aquarium and an Olympic-size ice rink in addition to rows and rows of stores.

The mall is situated at the foot of Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower), already the tallest building on earth at around 700 meters (2,300 feet) and still under construction.
The mall is scheduled to house branches of some of the world’s best known retail chains, such as Marks and Spencer, Galeries Lafayette and even Bloomingdales, which has never before had stores outside the United States.

London was yesterday, the official home of Britain’s largest shopping mall with the launch of the $2.8 billion Westfield London Shopping Centre in Shepherd’s Bush , a massive 265-store, glass-roofed shopping center.

The centre’s owners, Westfield and Commerzbank AG are confident that the looming British recession, the worst since 1991 will not negatively affect the potential profits of the centre’s future.

Steven Lowy, managing director of Australian based Westfield said that the project was built with the future in mind. The new mall is targeted to serve 20 million shoppers per year and Westfield aims for sales of £1 billion ($2 billion).

The new Westfield Mall which opens on Thursday will cover 43 acres of space and cost £1.7 billion ($2,65 billion) to build. As the Telegraph reports the mall will have 265 shops, a 14-screen movie theater, 50 restaurants, a gym, spa, a library and 4,500 parking spaces.

For the luxury-minded shopper the mall has a concierge team of 60 who speak 14 languages total. Valet parking is available as well as handsfree shopping and chauffeur service.

Although the immediate economic forecast is bleak, Westfield’s executives remain cautiously optimistic. Keith Mabbett is senior leasing executive at Westfield, and has been responsible for getting the retailers into the centre.

“We’ve been sounding out the retail market for six years, seeing what they need. And there is a need for this centre,” he said at Westfield’s site office overlooking the development.