While Morocco has made “a lot of progress” in education, the country “cannot be complacent, because the world is not standing still, and international competition is fierce,” the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD) Chief Economist, Baeta Javorcik, told Barlaman Today on Thursday. She cited in particular Morocco’s progress in educating women in the field of engineering.
Speaking at the Policy Center for the New South’s (PCNS) conference held at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) on Thursday and titled: “Transition Report Dissemination: A Changing Global Economic Landscape, Challenges and Opportunities for Morocco,” she addressed EBRD’s new report, “Transition Report 2023-2024: Transitions big and Small”.
Javorcik recommended that Morocco “improve its educational system.” “Big changes to the global economy offer many opportunities to Morocco: global value chains are being reshaped, which is an opportunity to capture more business,” she said. “Political tensions position Morocco well,” she argued, to take advantage of such opportunities thanks to “Morocco’s free trade agreements with several partners such as European countries, the USA, and Africa through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).”
Morocco needs to “move faster” with its investments in renewable energy, digital skills, and improving the business climate, she added.
During the conference, she offered insights into how countries will be impacted by climate change to switch gradually to green economies, and what are the “major transitions” related primarily to sustainable economies, and raw materials. She also addressed “small transitions,” such as career moves, housing, and life/health impacts.
She stated that the EBRD had conducted surveys of companies and discovered that their principal strategies for coping with global change are to “diversify partners and green transition sectors.”
North African companies see that “Food products, Hotels and restaurants, Biotech, Renewables, Agriculture, Vehicles and transports, and Digital services” are, generally speaking, the best investments, compared to other regions.
According to EBRD’s research, Moroccans are aware of the negative impacts of climate change on the environment and people, but they are less likely to pay more taxes to “fight global warming” or to prioritize the environment over jobs.
With a rising level of life satisfaction amid global changes, Morocco is in a “green zone,” she said, with over 60% of Moroccans satisfied with their lives.
As for people’s assessments of their health situations, Morocco scored 2.6 out of 5. She noted that Moroccan women’s health starts declining more quickly compared to men, mainly after the age of 30-39, that is due to the age factor.
The Director of Cooperation and Partnership at the Moroccan Agency for Investment, Assia Bensaad, stated that Morocco is approaching investors in key sectors. There are several ways of looking at Morocco’s position in the international value chain, she said. Morocco has “strong value added” in green energy and electronics.
To position itself in the international value chain, Morocco has “long worked on its economy to become what it is today, especially to ensure macroeconomic stability.”
Morocco’s exports show that Morocco is indeed positioning itself in its value chains, with 42 billion dollars in exports, two and a half times more than in 2012.
In addition to its infrastructure, which is driven by international standards, free trade agreements such as AfCFTA help Morocco position itself in the international value chain.
Senior Fellow at the PCNS Larabi Jaidi has another opinion. He recognized that Morocco has certainly been able to attract several foreign investors in vital fields such as automobile and aviation, but he asserted that much remains to be done to compete against big industrial countries.
He said that there is a global economic competition, but “we need to see the impact on social life and people’s living conditions, and this is the approach that Morocco is adopting. An economic transformation must above all improve people’s lives, in the sense that if we produce wealth, this wealth must be equitably distributed.”
Jaidi agreed that Morocco is participating in global value chains, but only “a little.” While after 2017 there has been some evolution, “we are still in a downstream stage in the chain, and the road to improvement is very long,” he said.
Javorcik agreed with Jaidi that the stability of an industry–for example for a mining or oil extraction company–“requires at least 60 years.”
The Policy Center for the New South is a Moroccan think tank dedicated to improving economic and social public policies that place Morocco and the rest of Africa as vital elements of the global South.