Recovery: Morocco Urged To Focus Its Strategy on Post-crisis Opportunities (WB)

Morocco is called upon to focus its strategy on the opportunities that will emerge after the Covid crisis, said director of the Maghreb and Malta department at the World Bank (WB), Jesko S. Hentschel.

“Rethinking Morocco’s strategy requires a policy focused on the opportunities that will emerge after the Covid crisis, by banking on a green, digital and innovative recovery, including a faster decarbonization of the economy”, said Jesko S. Hentschel, in an interview with MAP.

This policy should also be turned towards the many countries of Europe which will probably wish in the future to establish “closer” trade links with the countries of the southern neighborhood, including Morocco and the countries of North Africa, explained the WB representative of in Morocco.

According to the official, the recovery plan, which will mobilize nearly 11% of GDP in the form of fiscal stimulus measures, financing guarantees and capital injections into companies, is comparatively much “more ambitious” than the answer noted in emerging and developing economies, which does not exceed an average of 6% of GDP.

In the implementation of this recovery plan, Hentschel considered that it is important to take into account several criteria for a successful “economic rescue” policy, in order to be able to establish economic choices and trade-offs.

As such, with regard to the rescue of companies, it would be important to distinguish between companies which faced, because of the crisis, liquidity problems but remained solvent, from those whose survival will depend on fundamental changes to improve their competitiveness after the crisis.

Regarding the reform component, Morocco is ahead of many other countries that are still in the process of mitigating the short-term impacts of Covid-19. The authorities saw this crisis as an opportunity to initiate important reforms to get the economy back on track, streamline the functioning of the state and strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable categories, he said.

The creation of the Mohammed VI Fund in particular could become “a fundamental pillar” to allow promising companies to capitalize, to grow and to create jobs. The contribution of this Fund to the recovery will depend on several factors related in particular to its governance, said the Director.

On the agricultural aspect, Hentschel noted that the government aims to perpetuate the positive impacts of the Green Moroccan Plan through the Generation Green Strategy (SGG), adding that the launch of the SGG comes at a crucial time given the double crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic and the drought experienced by the country.

He underlined that the promotion of the SGG will be essential in responding and recovering from the crisis. Indeed, the emphasis on youth employment in rural areas can be a key element of the economic response. Support for food supply chains can also help with seizing new opportunities in export markets and ensuring the resilience of domestic supply chains during such crises.