2023-08-08 19:34:00
The balance currently tips in favor of the United States in terms of foreign direct investment. For a long time, France was the first country of origin of FDI to Morocco, American investments rose to the first rank in terms of net flows (Flux Net FDI).
According to statistics from the Foreign Exchange Office in 2022, going from 436 million dirhams in 2020 to 692 million dirhams in 2021, before doubling to reach 7.409 billion dirhams, against only 3.2 billion dirhams for investments from France.
American funding has deposed French FDI in the Kingdom, concretely confirming that the depth of the “strategic partnership” between Rabat and Washington bears on futuristic prospects. This cooperation translates into capital and economic actions, strongly supported by political positions, the most significant of which was the decision of ex-President Trump to recognize Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara in December 2020.
However, this American performance did not affect France’s position as the “largest holder of foreign capital in Morocco” with approximately 31% of the total. France is still the leader in the “distribution of foreign direct investment reserves”
Economy and politics
Interviewed by Hespress, Tayeb Aais, financial analyst and economist, called this development the first of its kind, referring to the contexts that have contributed to the consolidation of the overwhelming presence of the French economy since the first days of independence.
“The contribution of America is immense for the quality of investments in Morocco, in the different regions of the Kingdom, both in the north and in the south. The official recognition by Washington of Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara has strongly contributed to the flow of FDI to the Kingdom”said our speaker.
That said, America invests and is interested in all the economic sectors that Morocco offers. This is a huge opportunity that promises future growth. However, it generally targets everything that is strategic: metallurgical industries, water purification and desalination projects, wastewater recycling, the technology and services sector and renewable energies, in particular hydrogen. , whose projects mainly embrace the regions of the Moroccan Sahara.
A leap forward in favor of Morocco
“It is an important qualitative leap that will mark the history of bilateral relations between Morocco and America, not only at the economic level but also political and security”, noted the expert. Besides, “A major change will be brought about by the growth of American investment as the world’s leading economic power”adds the specialist
Morocco was not present on the American outlook from an economic point of view. But, “Since the era of Trump and his penchant for business, American interest has grown remarkably in the feasibility of investing in Moroccan projects “, notes our interlocutor.
Moreover, this great momentum is part of the context of Morocco’s gradual abandonment of the purely administrative and legal French model. In return, the country tends towards the adoption of the pragmatic American economic model, underlines the economist, for whom “ Morocco can benefit from huge American funds that generate net returns in favor of the Moroccan economy. A step driven by the culture of return on investment and job creation within an integrated economic fabric”.
To conclude, the specialist calls for “the need to harmonize and support these ongoing transformations in the map of investor countries in Morocco, by modernizing and pruning the legal and institutional framework which must develop certain attractive mechanisms and which must facilitate foreign direct investment”.
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