Morocco Taps Diaspora for Economic Recovery, Seeks Overseas Investment

For the economic recovery, Moroccans living abroad must also contribute their share. Thus, the Ministries of Finance, Industry and in charge of Moroccans living abroad have decided to support the investment of Moroccans living abroad, whose transactions reached 68 billion dirhams in 2020, informs L’Économiste. During a webinar organized by the CGEM on Tuesday, February 16, they presented the decisions in favor of investment in a context where "the bulk of remittances from Moroccans living abroad is for solidarity, 15% for savings, 70% for real estate and barely 10% for investment, or 700 to 800 million dollars". This amount is extremely low, given the potential of Moroccans living abroad, the same source said.

Moreover, "Morocco has improved its ranking and has committed to simplifying administrative burdens: the processing time for investment files by the CRI has been divided by 6, the law on the simplification of procedures came into force last September...". Thus, the response time to any investor’s request is set at a maximum of one month, otherwise silence means agreement. In addition, "MDM Invest will be completely revised to become a real tool for encouragement and incentive as part of a concerted approach with all the stakeholders concerned," not to mention that Moroccans living abroad are also invited to participate in the Mohammed VI Fund for Investment.

It should be noted that in the near future, two products will be put into service. The first will allow Moroccans living abroad to contribute to the thematic funds related to the Mohammed VI fund, especially in the fields of innovation and biotechnology, health... The second concerns the national loan which will be open to resident or non-resident individuals. Moreover, Morocco plans to improve the integration rate in certain areas and competitiveness, such as the automotive industry. The bet is therefore to equal the level of India while relying on the decarbonization of domestic production.