Updated
Taking a fresh look at Morocco’s economic development – Jean R. AbiNader
Jean R. AbiNader, Exec. Dir., Moroccan American Trade & Investment Center
MATIC, by Jean R. AbiNader (Washington, DC, August 28, 2013) – For the next two weeks, I’ll be writing my blogs from Morocco, which will give me a front row seat to see how economic growth is advancing given challenges internally and within the larger international business environment.
Several stories this past month provided greater details of the progress that is being made. There are three that are particularly interesting in that they point to the decisions Morocco is making about how to make its economy more globally competitive.
Growing Saudi-Moroccan business ties
This week, Saudi Arabia and Morocco launched a new round of projects to ratchet up the volume of business between the two countries. It should come as no surprise that the current trade balance favors Saudi Arabia because energy importer Morocco needs Saudi energy supplies to meet domestic demand.
The head of the Saudi-Morocco Business Council, Mohammad al-Hamady, noted that the total volume of trade between the two countries amounted to approximately $4.4 billion in 2011, with Saudi Arabia exporting far more to Morocco than it imports. He added that economic and trade relations between the two countries have been growing steadily, with Morocco becoming Saudi Arabia’s sixth-largest trading partner.
As part of its commitment to Morocco’s overall development, last year Saudi Arabia committed $1.2 billion over the next five years for investments, primarily in tourism development projects, making it the third largest investor in Morocco. Hamady believes that a major obstacle to greater trade is the lack of direct maritime transport lines between the two countries, and this was at the top of the agenda of the Saudi-Moroccan Business Council meetings in Jeddah this week.
Exploring for energy sources
CNBC and Reuters carried stories on expanding oil exploration projects in West and North Africa, with a special nod towards Morocco.
Ken Judge, the commercial director of Gulfsands, which had been active in Syria, said that “As you might imagine, after Syria what we’re looking for is some stability, and Morocco’s got terrific political stability, but it also has the best fiscal terms of any country in the Middle East and North Africa region.”
These efforts complement the expanding Moroccan focus on renewable energies, with RFPs for two more solar projects coming out shortly.
These opportunities and others, both trade and investment, are to be highlighted in the upcoming US-Morocco Business Development Conference to be held November 4-5, 2013 in Rabat. Later that month, Rabat will host The Morocco Summit with a wide-ranging exploration of Morocco as a hub for interregional business across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
Young business leaders
BBC carried a very interesting video report that reviewed projects to advance the economic status of women in rural areas, where there is great need to overcome poverty and illiteracy in advancing women’s empowerment. The report details projects that are run by young educated women working to enable women with little education to become family breadwinners through commercializing artisanal crafts and other products for domestic and international markets.
Another story about youthful entrepreneurs recounts how several Moroccans worked for months before receiving their first rate-free loan for entrepreneurs to start up a food delivery service in Morocco.
Their key decision was to build a talented staff from scratch who then acquired their skills by constructing the company from the ground up. Youssef El Kachchani of www.doofry.com, the food delivery company, found great success in recruiting widely via the web and putting potential employees through a two-week intensive reading session before starting.
This was similar to the strategy used by Youssef El Hammal, who launched www.stagiaires.ma in 2012 to connect students with recruiters. He found that hiring recent graduates was better than employing ones with more experience because “they’re highly motivated and excited to learn. Because they haven’t been working for corporations, they’re still open-minded, creative risk-takers.”
So it should be an interesting time to catch up with what’s going on in Morocco. With a new government being formed and an extensive economic reform agenda in the wings, it is a period of great anticipation that the economy will expand and create the jobs so badly needed in Morocco.
Jean R. AbiNader is Executive Director of the Moroccan American Trade and Investment Center
Co-published with Fair Observer (www.fairobserver.com)