Nizar Baraka, head of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), leads presentation in Rabat recommending new development model for southern provinces, following an extensive series of meetings and consultations with more than 1,500 stakeholders in the region. Aujourd’hui
* The development model applied so far in the southern provinces has reached its limits. In search of a new dynamic, Nizar Baraka unveils an ambitious new model. *
(Article in French)
Aujourd’hui Le Maroc (November 11, 2013) — The head of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) presented a “development model for the southern provinces” with ambitions that fascinate and figures enough to make your head spin. However, on Friday in Rabat before an audience of journalists and members of the committee drafting the document, Nizar Baraka appealed to realism and strove to demonstrate a faithful president’s commitment to focusing on the concrete.
His answer to comments about the size of the financial and human resources to achieve “sustainable development and sustainable social progress” in the Saharan provinces in times of scarcity comes down to this: the sacrifices Morocco has already made for its southern provinces are huge.
But, he said, let there be no mistake, this is not so much a matter of quantity and amount of resources, because “the development model applied so far in the region has reached its limits.” He said we need “a new dynamic based on the requirements of sustainability, participatory democracy and social cohesion, oriented towards the creation of wealth and jobs.” […]
Based on its four key principles, Baraka said: “This development model, which was made by and for local people, also aims to make our southern provinces a geostrategic center contributing to peace, stability and shared prosperity for the whole Euro-African region.”
In its medium-term phase-the next 10 years, the model projects a doubling of the GDP of these regions and to create 120,000 jobs. Objectives will be accompanied by social measures to expand the ranks of the middle class, including the eradication of one of the flaws that have burdened the development work in these territories: rent-seeking and the inequitable distribution of resources and income.
Airport in Dakhla, Morocco. New model for development presented by Morocco’s Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) calls for turning the southern provinces into a regional hub of progress and prosperity between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. Medias 24
The EESC model calls for a “more equitable social system based on social safety nets targeting the most vulnerable populations, based on criteria known to all.” But, said Baraka, the new development model focuses not only on the search for sustainable and inclusive development that primarily benefits local people. It is also noteworthy for the goal of making the region a center for the transmission of wealth and progress at the continent level. The aim, he said, is to turn the southern provinces into a hub between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa through a series of projects that make it the center of a communications and telecommunications network.
Recommended ways to achieve this include: a maritime cluster, adequate connectivity plan based on the development of electric highways, the construction of the bypass and the Atlantic desert road, the strengthening of port, maritime and air transport network and development establishment of a platform for digital planning and logistics platforms and commerce. Efforts that will be reinforced include the creation “of centers opened for Maghreb and sub-Saharan regional cooperation in education, skills training, higher education, health and applied scientific research excellence.”
All this has a cost, said the EESC president, who advanced a today figure of 140 billion dirhams [over 10 years]. He said that while the state is expected to be the main source of funds, improving the attractiveness of infrastructure investments and improving the business climate should generate private capital. In the immediate future, a key element of the program is attractive tax incentives. […]
As a comprehensive development program, Baraka said the new model had to embrace all aspects of social life, emphasizing in particular a restoration of confidence between citizens and state officials by promoting public participation and giving primacy to the law, breaking with the cash economy and freeing private initiative, and also by replacing the current social policies with an integrated human development strategy. He also said that the strength of the program lies in the fact that it establishes a system of conditional cash transfers targeted at vulnerable populations, establishes a model of management and distribution of natural resources conscious of sustainability and equity, with short-term incentives that seek to open up the southern provinces.
The EESC President also cited the project’s recognition of culture as a right, a lever for development, and a key to the success of the advanced regionalization. To be effective, he said, carrying out the new development model should be based on decision-making and project implementation at the local level. Advanced regionalization is suitable for this institutional framework, he concluded, with the support of Mohamed Horani, EESC member and former president of the CGEM, who said it is the royal will that marks the implementation of the regionalization for the southern provinces.
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