Mohammed BOUSSAID, Minister of Economy and Finance, declared at the opening of the 43rd annual meetings of the Islamic Development Bank Group in Tunis on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, that Morocco occupies the sixth position in terms of IDB financing, since its creation in 1975, with 6.8 billion US dollars at the end of 2017.
Mr. BOUSSAID added that 2.8 billion USD has been granted to Morocco for the implementation of development projects in the energy sector (40%), transport (27%), water and the sanitation (25%) and agriculture (7%), and 4 billion USD as trade facilitation for the private sector and state-owned enterprises.
Regarding the prospects for cooperation between the two parties, he announced that the Bank is in the process of developing a new strategy for the period 2018-2021, recalling that the Kingdom had benefited from 1.8 billion USD within the 2013-2016 program to which the IDB has devoted a budget of 2.4 billion USD.
In this regard, he recalled the signature between Morocco and the IDB, in 2015, of a memorandum of understanding to support the South-South partnership, to make Sub-Saharan countries benefit from the Moroccan experience and to encourage the contribution of the private sector in the programs of development financed for the African financial institutions.
While stressing the importance of the role played by the bank in the financing of economic projects and programs within Islamic countries as part of a partnership approach, the Minister said that the 43rd IDB meetings have been marked by the creation of a 500 million USD fund to finance projects under the public-private sector partnership, as well as another mechanism dedicated to creation and innovation.
According to him, these decisions are part of the IDB's main guidelines for overcoming the obstacles to development in the Islamic and Arab world, through the implementation of a new development model.
On this, he recalled that Morocco has started, in accordance with the high guidelines of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, a deep reflection to establish a new model of development that satisfies and meets the expectations of all citizens, address the youth employment-related challenges and improves the quality of social services.
The annual meetings of the IDB Group had started on Sunday and will continue until this Thursday, 5 April. Fifty-seven Ministers of Economy and Finance from member states and more than 1,000 participants outside and from Tunisia representing many establishments, Arab financial institutions, regional and international, as well as experts from various economic sectors are taking part in these meetings. The objective is to provide the decision makers, from IDB’s member states, an ideal setting to address the challenges facing their economies and deal with opportunities available to them.