Highlights

On Monday, August 27, 2018, Mr. Mohamed BENCHAABOUN, Minister of Economy and Finance, received at the headquarters of his department, Mr. Ferid BELHAJ, World Bank Vice-President for MENA. This meeting was an opportunity for the Minister to review, with Mr. BELHAJ, the state of Morocco's current and future cooperation with the World Bank.

The Minister of Economy and Finance said in his statement to the press, the partnership program between Morocco and the World Bank, for the period 2019-2023, will give priority to youth and employment, in accordance with the directions announced by HM King Mohammed VI in His last speech. “This partnership, which focuses on several key areas, also concerns the restructuring of all social welfare and human development mechanisms”, BENCHAABOUN said.

The third main focus of the Morocco-World Bank partnership program concerns territorial development and especially decentralization, the Minister emphasized.

Mr Benchaaboun also announced that this partnership includes two horizontal axes, one linked to governance and the other to the intensive use of new technologies and digitization to bring greater transparency and efficiency to the actions of the administration, in parallel adopting a gender-based approach to promote the role of women for the coming years in order to increase the production of wealth in Morocco.

Firthermore, the Minister noted that the partnership for the period 2019-2023 between Morocco and the WB also includes incentives for investment in the Kingdom. "We also asked that there be maximum support of Moroccan companies, on the one hand to facilitate access to financing by implementing a number of innovative mechanisms for guarantees, and on the other hand to enable those working in the informal sector to migrate to a formal economy", added Mr. BENCHAABOUN.

For his part, the World Bank Vice-President for the MENA region said that his meeting with the Minister of Economy and Finance provided an opportunity to review the state of the long-standing relations and cooperation between Morocco and the WB.

The Kingdom has put in place several programs of great economic significance, said Mr. BELHAJ, noting that Morocco and the WB will, in the near future, move on to a new phase enabling the establishment of a strategic framework for cooperation, which will provide a basis for WB interventions in financial and technical support.

The meeting is part of a visit to Morocco by the WB Vice President for the MENA region that will run until August 29th, which aims to reaffirm the World Bank Group's commitment to Morocco, to reinforce the long-standing partnership with the country and to identify the priority commitments under the future partnership framework.