São Paulo – The African Development Bank (AfDB), a regional development institution, released this Wednesday (8th) that its board of directors approved a loan of US$ 112.5 million for the support program on Morocco’s economic competitiveness.
According to the press release of the Abdijan, Ivory Coast-based bank, the country is going through a turning point in its economic transformation process. For it to move forward and explore fully its growth potential, the economy has to become more competitive, according to the institution.
The program’s goal is to support reforms aimed at improving the efficiency of public and private investments to expand its effects into growth, economic transformation and job creation.
The plan will help reduce bottlenecks that inhibit investments. Such problems were identified in a study made by the bank and the Moroccan government published earlier this year, according to AfDB.
The program revolves around two major guidelines. The first one concerns the incentive for reform to reduce the bottlenecks faced by private investments, such as changes in the business legislation, encouraging formalization, promoting entrepreneurship and the facilitation of proceedings. The second one has as its goal the increase of efficiency of public investments through management improvement in state agencies, among other measures.
This plan joins others implemented in Morocco, also with the AfDB support, in areas such as the reform of the banking sector and agricultural development, and infrastructure investments. The program includes technical assistance to the country for the implementation of the reforms, as already happens in the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) area.
The commitments made by AfDB with Morocco add up to US$ 2.31 billion and concern 31 initiatives already being implemented, according to the bank.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
