São Paulo – North Africa’s Maghreb region, comprising Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, needs to improve its business and investment environment in order to promote innovation, entrepreneurship and job creation. That will allow the private sector to be at the center economic development, encouraging the population’s productive potential. So says Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who ended her first-ever visit to Mauritania last Wednesday (9th).
“I am encouraged by the commitment of the authorities of the Maghreb countries to vigorously pursue a transparent and equitable model of growth and private-sector development against the backdrop of the social and political transformation taking place across the region,” said Lagarde, according to an IMF press release. She was referring to the Arab Sprin, which led to regime changes in Libya and Tunisia, and forced other countries in the bloc to implement political reforms.
Lagarde had meetings with Mauritania’s president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, Finance minister, Thiam Diombar, Economic Affairs and Development minister, Sidi Ould Tah, Central Bank governor, Sid’Ahmed Ould Raiss, and private sector representatives.
The IMF director congratulated the authorities on their macroeconomic management of the country, which facilitated the recovery of economic activity, inflation control, and increased fiscal protection in 2012. According to her, although Mauritania is plagued by high unemployment and poverty rates, the government is promoting reforms in its subsidy system aiming to replace it with a more socially-oriented system.
During the visit, Lagarde also attended the fifth regional conference of Maghreb Finance ministers and central bank governors, held by the IMF and the Central Bank of Mauritania. The event focused on economic integration and the role of foreign investment.
“I was able to gauge the efforts under way to promote regional integration. I was pleased to hold discussions on this topic with government officials and private-sector representatives from all five Maghreb countries,” said the executive.
Lagarde mentioned the imminent start-up of the Maghreb Bank for Investment and Foreign Trade (MBICE), aiming to facilitate private investment in the region.
“Fostering investment from abroad is an important part of this economic model. To attract more foreign investment, countries in the region should accelerate their efforts to integrate, including by opening up foreign direct investment regimes. The region should also continue to diversify its sources and sectors for foreign direct investment,” she said.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
