The President of the British Chamber of Commerce for Morocco (BritCham), Stephen Orr, stated, on Thursday, that Morocco has experienced “a historic turning point” in terms of encouraging and promoting private investment.
At a webinar organized by the British Chamber under the theme “New Investment Charter: A Dynamic for Morocco’s Business Climate”, Orr stressed that economic, social, institutional, technological, and environmental changes “require a reform of Morocco’s investment policies.”
Orr noted that the new investment charter, which was enacted in December and had its first decree put into effect in January, is considered “the strategic roadmap to vitalize investment in Morocco,” adding that it will enable Morocco to become a highly competitive economy and strengthen the role of private stakeholders and the Moroccan productive system.
The President of the British Chamber of Morocco also stated that this new charter will strengthen collaborative dynamics between public and private stakeholders and push national companies towards improved taxation and governance.
For his part, the Director of Investment at the Ministry of Investment, Convergence, and Evaluation of Public Policies, Hicham Chaoudri, noted that the dynamics of private investment are at the heart of Morocco’s economic recovery strategy, recalling that the New Investment Charter aims to create stable jobs, reduce territorial inequalities, develop priority sectors and future occupations, turn Morocco into a continental and international hub and promote the growth of Moroccan companies internationally.
Chaoudri further stressed that this new charter, which is marked by transparency, objectivity, and investor readability, placed great importance on local integration, sustainable development, and investment facilitation, noting that approximately 40% of investment procedures were recently reviewed.
In addition, Chaoudri also pointed out that the new charter promotes a new generation of investors, as over 50% of investments are currently made by large corporations, noting that measures have been put in place to support this new generation of business owners, including a mechanism for the international development of Moroccan companies as well as measures to make it easier for SMEs to access funding.
In a similar context, member of the Board of Directors of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM) and President of SFM Agency, Abdelkader Boukhriss, noted that the Charter emerged in a context where the Moroccan ecosystem needed regulatory leverage, adding that it was necessary to “ensure coherence between several legal instruments (taxation, digitization, data protection…) in order to achieve a meaningful investment framework law.”
Boukhriss also expressed regret that only three regions in Morocco account for 60% of the country’s GDP, emphasizing the need to encourage investment in underdeveloped areas to facilitate decentralization, give residents of these areas room to grow economically and capitalize on regional differences.
In this regard, the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Sound Energy Plc, Mohammed Seghiri, emphasized that the new Investment Charter represents “a big paradigm shift for international investors in Morocco,” highlighting Morocco’s enormous potential in energy and gas drilling.
Seghiri further expressed Sound Energy Plc’s willingness to continue exploring the potential of the Moroccan territory and to partake in the Kingdom’s strategy for the protection of electrical infrastructure and the decarbonization of the economy.
“Morocco, which seeks to strengthen its position as an economic and industrial country, is moving in the right direction,” noted Seghiri, emphasizing that the security of current power systems and future power plants are strategic fields that contribute to the Kingdom’s industrial sovereignty.