Highlights

Mr. Mohamed BOUSSAID, Minister of Economy and Finance and Mrs. Anne PAUGAM, Director General of the French Development Agency Group, signed in the presence of Mr. Abdeslam SEDDIKI, Minister of Employment and Social Affairs and his excellency, Mr. Charles FRIES, Ambassador of France in Morocco, Wednesday, September 10th, 2014 at the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the financing agreement of € 50 million, on the " Moroccan policy Support program in terms of employment and skills development "

Speaking on this occasion, Mr. Mohamed BOUSSAID recalled that this program reflects the quality and density of cooperative links between the Kingdom of Morocco and the French Development Agency (AFD). He added that this program will have significant socio-economic impacts in the years to come and represents an important contribution for achieving the targets set by the government. The Minister also stated that he was pleased that this program further concerns a sector that is as vital and relevant as employment which is a major national issue. He recalled that the purpose of this program is to support the implementation of government policy to improve equity and quality of Public Employment Services and their employability thanks to a performant initial and continuing vocational training system.

Furthermore, and after emphasizing the very positive assessment of the financial cooperation with the Agency whose commitments in Morocco reached 1 billion euros over the period 2010-2012, the Minister outlined the objectives of the agreement, which aims to improve the adequacy of skills produced by the systems of higher education and vocational training to the needs of the labor market, improve the effectiveness of active labor market programs for existing jobs and strengthening intermediation services on the labor market and the quality of work through the increased productivity of the informal sector and the expansion of social security coverage and finally strengthening the labor market information system.

For her part, the Director General of the AFD welcomed the contribution of the Agency to achieve a high priority of the Moroccan Government namely the balance between employment and vocational training. Mrs. PAUGAM specified that the AFD aims to support the Kingdom of Morocco in the process of implementing sector based policies which aim to modernize the country and improve the living standards of citizens. She also stressed the interest of the Agency to the private sector's role in job creation.

The Minister of Employment and Social Affairs, Mr. Abdeslam SEDDIKI, affirmed that this agreement is a financial support which comes at one time when the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs set up its Strategic planning over the period 2014-2016 and which aims in particular to the development of productive and decent employment and the reinforcement of the basic labor rights.

It should be noted that this program extends the scope of the AFD assistance to the problem of intermediation in the labor market supported by the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs (MEAS), while continuing to support the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MENFP). In addition, the AFD grants Morocco (500,000 euros) to reinforce the technical assistance that will strengthen the resources used by the MEAS and MENFP on employability, employability winners of vocational training, expanding the recipients of intermediation public services on the labor market and the efficiency of the active labor market policy measures.