Moroccan Diaspora Demands Investment Reforms, Urges Royal Support to Boost Economy

A plea in favor of investment in Morocco. This is the exercise that Moroccan investors residing abroad have undertaken during a communication meeting organized by the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services on the occasion of the National Migrant Day on the theme: "Investment in the region: prospects and development". According to the opinion of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) in 2022, only a tiny percentage of MRE fund transfers, barely 1.3%, is directed towards investment. To solve this problem, Bouchaïb Rami, president of the Club of Moroccan Investors Abroad, proposes to create a third neutral committee responsible for studying the reasons for the rejection of investment projects presented by members of the diaspora. This committee should include specialized skills that would examine the files in detail and highlight the points of failure or the manipulations hindering the projects, while working to identify the causes of the blockages and overruns that lead to the discouragement of investors, he specified.

According to Rami, investors are faced with "unjustified" bureaucratic and administrative obstacles, despite their willingness to bring in capital and present development projects. He warns that the discouragement they face risks dissuading them from pursuing their investments in their country. Faced with this major difficulty, he asks that the diaspora’s projects benefit from special advantages and concrete facilities. He calls for them to receive the direct attention of King Mohammed VI in a message of support from the highest authority in the country, strengthening confidence and encouraging continuity. He also calls for facilitating financial operations instead of complicating them. He has indeed criticized the way some banking institutions treat investors in the diaspora, in particular their insistence on verifying the sources of funds.

These practices fall under the prerogatives of the judicial and security authorities, and not those of the banks, he believes. Other investors have also expressed their feelings. "Administrative problems are not solved in Morocco, and whoever wants a solution must go to The Hague," said one of them, thus referring to the slowness and complexity of local judicial procedures, compared to certain international jurisdictions. Furthermore, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) has also been criticized by the speakers. The high costs of travel to Morocco consume a large part of the savings of the members of the diaspora and affect their investment capacity, they denounced.