Mrs Nadia Fettah, Minister of Economy and Finance, held a working meeting with Mr. Ousmane Dione, the World Bank's new Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), who is on an official visit to Morocco as part of the strengthening of the World Bank's long-standing and solid partnership with the Kingdom. This is Mr. Dione's first official visit to Morocco since taking up his post as Vice-President for the MENA Region on April 16, 2024.
On this occasion, Madam Minister highlighted the important dimension of the strategic partnership framework that characterizes the partnership relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the World Bank. Discussions then focused on the World Bank's support for Morocco's development trajectory and its ambitious reform program, particularly in the fields of financial and digital inclusion, social protection and health. They also provided an opportunity to follow up on the important discussions with Morocco at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings in Marrakech in October 2023.
On the sidelines of this working meeting with Mr. Dione, the Minister signed the Rapid Response Option (RRO) agreement with the World Bank Group (WBG).
This agreement marks an important milestone in the Kingdom's ability to respond rapidly to emergencies and provide crucial support to its citizens. The ORR is a key element of the WBG's Expanded Crisis Preparedness and Response Toolkit, designed to enable client countries to deploy resources from their existing banking portfolios more effectively and rapidly in times of crisis.
Under this innovative agreement, Morocco can access up to 10% of its undisbursed portfolio balances with the World Bank Group for rapid response actions. This flexible resource reallocation mechanism provides the government with immediate liquidity to respond to disasters or emergencies.
This initiative further strengthens Morocco's resilience and capacity to manage and mitigate the impact of crises, demonstrating the government's commitment, under the Enlightened Leadership of his majesty King Mohammed VI, May God assist him, to provide the necessary protection to citizens in the face of various shocks.