COVID-19: Moroccan economic monitoring committee accelerates pace for recovery

The economic monitoring committee, set up since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Morocco early March, is making every effort to resume economic activities and put economic recovery on the right track, after more than two months of confinement, which heavily impacted several sectors of the national economy.

The committee members discussed at a meeting last week the main measures of the Economic Recovery Plan, drawn up by the employers’ association, the CGEM, in close consultation with the sectoral federations.

Local media, Les Inspirations Eco, reports this Tuesday, May 26, that the committee members have agreed to thoroughly examine the proposals put forward by economic operators and ministerial departments, as discussions are going on to amend the 2020 finance bill.

 

“The stimulus plan, coupled with the amended finance law, will be comprehensive and integrated and should make it possible to support the gradual restart of activity in the various sectors of the national economy, in line with the planned de-confinement scheme, and to create the conditions for a vigorous economic recovery at the end of the Covid-19 crisis,” underlines the committee.

According to the committee, the strategic scope of this recovery plan should allow Morocco to make a significant qualitative leap in certain structural areas, such as health, education, green energy and digital development.

For the committee, the recovery plan should lay the foundations for a “Pact for economic recovery and employment”, translating the shared ambition of all stakeholders (State, businesses, banking sector, other partners …), Les Inspirations Eco underlines.

The economic monitoring committee made it clear that the state of health emergency does not mean the cessation of economic activity, but that all economic stakeholders must ensure strict compliance with the preventive, barrier, and security measures set out in the guides elaborated by the CGEM and the sectoral federations.

According to the paper, all economic activities could restart except for those explicitly prohibited by the administrative authorities.

During its latest meeting, the committee also discussed the new credit guarantee products to benefit businesses and help economy to recover.

 

The CGEM Economic Recovery Plan submitted to the economic monitoring committee revolves around three main axes: supply with a healthy exit from the crisis; the stimulus of demand through a more central role of the State; and the establishment of transverse mechanisms for accelerating the transformation of national economy, the paper recalls, noting that the main objective is to stimulate local demand by encouraging investment and consumption of Morocco-made products.