Morocco Poised to Become Industrial ’Plan B’ for West as China Alternative, Expert Says

According to the expert, post-covid Morocco must be more inclusive, more supportive, and more in a position of strategic agility to capture the opportunities available to it. The kingdom, after the pandemic, will be plagued by difficulties inherent in the restart of an economy heavily impacted by the covid-19 crisis, he recalls. "We should therefore see an increase in inequalities, which cannot be offset by the organization of the solidarity put in place by the State.

As for the priority sectors to be rehabilitated after the pandemic, Abdelmalek Alaoui primarily targets the tourism industries in the broad sense, hospitality and "retail". According to him, they must be the ones that mobilize the most efforts from the public authorities. Also, he recalls, these industries are the most devastated and those that employ the most workers. This is why he has urged the competent authorities to find ways and means to allow them to restart quickly, by strongly encouraging domestic demand.

In addition to the tourism sector, the president of the Moroccan Institute of Strategic Intelligence (IMIS) also favors the "informal sector". For Abdelmalek Alaoui, this sector must be the subject of rapid specific measures, as its workers are often in precarious situations.

For him, the industries that have suffered, but which were not completely at a standstill, must also be supported in order to restore part of their turnover. The president of IMIS also adds that Morocco must learn a lot from this crisis that has "turned the whole world upside down".