Morocco steadfast in hosting IMF and World Bank meetings in Marrakech

Morocco will be hosting the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Marrakech this October.

Abdellatif Jouahri, Morocco’s Bank Al-Maghrib governor, recently declared during a central banking conference called “Road to Marrakech” that the meetings will indeed proceed as originally planned. 

Morocco’s embassy in Washington, according to a spokesperson, told Reuters  that the government intends to proceed with the annual meetings as scheduled, despite the earthquake.

This decision comes despite a recent destructive earthquake, measuring 6.8 in magnitude, which took the lives of more than 2,900 people just 72 kilometers away from Marrakech.

The IMF and World Bank are presently engaged in a comprehensive evaluation to ascertain whether the scheduled meetings from October 9 to 15 can proceed safely in Marrakech.

 An essential consideration is the aftermath of the earthquake, which has raised concerns about the city’s readiness to accommodate between 10,000 to 15,000 attendees, potentially straining resources.

Officials at the IMF and World Bank are concerned  whether hosting these meetings would interfere with ongoing earthquake recovery efforts. 

The annual meetings, usually held every third year in a member country, have already been postponed for two consecutive years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The IMF pointed out that previous international meetings, such as the one held in Bali in 2018, had a substantial positive impact on the host country’s tourism industry and local businesses, with the tourism boost alone estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

According to what sources familiar with the situation disclosed to Reuters, the meeting site in Marrakech, which comprises temporary structures and large tents on the outskirts of the city, remains undamaged and fully operational. 

There are discussions about the potential adaptive reuse of these structures for future relief efforts, as well as a reconsideration of the meeting agenda to focus more on aid-related topics.