Updated

New Reports Show Morocco Leads Region in Prosperity, Business Opportunities, and Governance

Washington, DC, November 4, 2015 (MACP) — Two recently-released reports show that Morocco is a leader in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the areas of overall prosperity as well as ease of doing business. The reports reflect Morocco’s success in implementing ongoing economic and democratic reform under the leadership of King Mohammed VI.

The 2015 edition of the Legatum Prosperity Index, which measures prosperity based on eight different metrics—economy, entrepreneurship and opportunity, governance, education, health, safety and security, personal freedom, and social capital—ranked Morocco highest in North Africa and sixth out of 15 countries in the broader MENA region. Released just a week earlier, the World Bank’s Doing Business 2016 report ranked Morocco first out of 20 MENA countries in terms of “ease of starting a business” and placed it sixth overall in the region for “ease of doing business.”

Both reports also showed that Morocco has made considerable year-to-year improvements. Morocco gained six spots overall since last year’s Legatum Institute ranking; and five spots overall in the World Bank rankings. The country showed even greater gains when looking at particular areas: it gained three spots in the World Bank’s measurement of ease of “paying taxes,” nine spots in the ease of “starting a business,” and a whopping 27 spots in ease of “registering property.”

The two studies follow last month’s publication of the 2015 Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), in which Morocco was praised as “one of the most improved countries in Africa since 2011”, and “one of only six countries to show improvement in all four IIAG categories.” Published by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the IIAG measures sustainable economic opportunity, human development, rule of law, and civic participation and human rights.

“The results of these three successive reports are strong indicators of Morocco’s commitment to and success in transforming the country into a well-developed platform for opportunity in the region,” said former US Ambassador to Morocco Edward M. Gabriel.

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 Contact: Jordana Merran, 202.470.2049

The Moroccan American Center for Policy (MACP) is a non-profit organization whose principal mission is to inform opinion makers, government officials, and interested publics in the United States about political and social developments in Morocco and the role being played by the Kingdom of Morocco in broader strategic developments in North Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East.

This material is distributed by the Moroccan American Center for Policy on behalf of the Government of Morocco. Additional information is available at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC.

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