Justice, a crucial incentive to investments & free enterprise promotion –King Mohammed VI

King Mohammed VI has underlined the crucial role justice plays in improving the investment environment, promoting free enterprise and protecting entrepreneurship, insisting that creating the right conditions for investment requires legal and economic guarantees that ensure confidence in the judicial system and provide full security for investors.

This came in a message that King Mohammed addressed Monday to participants in the Second InternationalJustice Conference,  held in Marrakech under the topic of “Justice and Investment: the Challenges and the Stakes”.

“Justice is one of the key sectors that help improve the investment environment, promote free enterprise and protect entrepreneurship. As for the judiciary, it should play a crucial part in that process and take due account of the challenges created by current global economic conditions and the domestic economic environment,” the Monarch underscored in the message that was read out by Minister of State for Human Rights, Mustapha Ramid.

“Creating the right conditions for investment requires not only the overhaul of incentive legislation, but also the provision of legal and economic guarantees that ensure confidence in the judicial system and provide full security for investors,” the Monarch said, stressing the important need to standardize mechanisms and procedures for the settlement of investment disputes at the national, regional and international levels.

It is just as necessary to resolve national judicial competence issues in this regard through the establishment of an appropriate legal system that helps avoid problems and reduce disputes, and to set up specialized bodies for the settlement of disputes within a reasonable timeframe. “These institutions should take into account the particularities of financial and commercial disputes and be swift, efficient and flexible when dealing with them,” he stated further.

The Monarch who recalled that he had earlier stressed the need to develop alternative judicial approaches such as mediation, arbitration and conciliation and to establish alternative dispute settlement mechanisms, insisted that “creating a safe environment for investment from the economic, social, legal, administrative and structural perspectives means we all have to strive doubly hard to consolidate the rule of law, enhance the independence of the judiciary, promote judicial foresight, ensure staff training, improve judicial administration and strengthen governance in the judiciary.”

“To this end, an integrated, holistic approach should be adopted to address investment issues through laws relating to commerce, banking, taxation, customs, real estate, documentation and social affairs,” the King said, underlining that the approach should also take into account the international and technological dimensions imposed by the globalization of trade, finance and economic exchange around the world.

In the same vein, the Monarch stressed the need to make the most of the means afforded by modern technology for the dissemination of legal and judicial information, promote the paperless processing of legal procedures and judicial regulations and adopt online justice methods.

In his message, King Mohammed VI also surveyed the modern, structural legal texts adopted by Morocco in a bid to help develop the financial and business system, promote investment, boost economic activity and support national companies, making them a driving force of economic development.

The Second International Conference on Justice provides a platform to share views and ideas and learn about international experiences, mainly about the modernization of the business legal system; the Role of justice in promoting business climate; the use of information technology; and the stakes of regional groupings.

This second edition of the Marrakech International Justice Conference will also be marked by several presentations and lectures on the role of justice and law in improving the attractiveness of the business climate and investment incentive.