Morocco Boosts Local Economy with National Preference Measures in Finance Bill

The Executive has committed to maintaining demand through the revision of the system governing public procurement with the aim of encouraging high value-added local sectors, reports Challenge. These actions will be accompanied by strong support for "Moroccan consumption" including "marketing and promotion, and administrative and tax support," it is specified.

The finance bill amendment project indicates that the existing mechanisms for national preference and compliance with technical specifications and standards and Moroccan origin products in the field of public procurement by the State, local authorities and public establishments and enterprises will be operationalized.

It is a question of applying the provisions of Article 155 of Decree No. 2-12-349 of March 20, 2013 relating to public contracts. In other words, the contracting authorities must provide in the tender regulations relating to the award procedures for works contracts and related studies that the amounts of the offers presented by foreign companies are increased by a percentage not exceeding 15% for the purpose of comparing these offers with the offers presented by national companies.

They must also "strictly comply with the provisions of Article 42 of the general administrative specifications applicable to works contracts which provide that materials and products must comply with Moroccan approved technical specifications or standards, or failing that, international standards." In other words, they have the mission of ensuring the origin of the materials and products by all probative documents, in particular invoices, delivery notes and certificates of origin.