Rabat – French newspaper Le Point has hailed Morocco as a world power in the making, drawing attention to the list of social and economic changes the North African country has witnessed of late.
The paper’s almost eulogistic coverage commends Morocco socio-economic transformations, detailed in a July 11 editorial headlined “Morocco, the New Power.” The article draws a fine portrait of an already established continental or regional giant consistently flexing its muscles to make a full-throated entrance into the court of a much more respected kind of giants: world powers.
Morocco, Le Point argues, has changed for the better. And, while there are still some loopholes in the North African country’s grand design,—there is always room for improvement—the magnitude of the change and the apparent existence of the political will to move things forward make Morocco’s case more forceful to international observers. “Morocco,” the editorial puts it bluntly, is “a new power.”
To give a sense of why the north African country deserves this litany of compliments, the article went on to cite a flurry of international reports from acute observers, from the IMF to the World Bank. When it comes to the health of the Moroccan economy, and the promises of its market, most reports agree that the kingdom is a good place to invest, Le Point emphasized.
Part of the Moroccan success story has to do with an “enlightened royal vision,” “good policy choices,” a functioning multipartism, increased visibility for Moroccan women, and an increasingly robust institutional framework to meet the challenges the kingdom has set for itself in its new development plan.
‘Blossoming’ Morocco
But there is also the construction of hypermodern infrastructure mushrooming in cities across the country.
Such strikingly “modern” infrastructure, the editorial reminds its readership, include the newly completed Tangier Med Port and the equally newly built high speed train line now connecting Tangier and Casablanca. “Here blossoms what tomorrow’s Morocco will look like,” the article says of the “audacious” urbanization projects gradually taking shape in numerous Moroccan cities.
The strength of this assertive and constantly changing Morocco resides in its qualified and country-loving human resources, Neila Tazi, a leading businesswoman and member of Morocco’s General Confederation of Enterprises (CGEM), told the French newspaper. “We may not have oil, but our real strength is found in human and geographical capital,” the businesswoman said.
Towards the end of its celebratory portrait of Morocco, Le Point acknowledged that, of course, all is not a bed of roses in the emerging, assertive Morocco. Some “fragile” points remain and need tackling.
Those have to do with a stuttering public education system, “persisting social inequalities,” an insufficient application of gender equality laws, as well as a poignant “brain drain” as a number of highly qualified Moroccans elect to emigrate for better opportunities and treatment.
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Despite these persisting “fragilities,” Le Point stressed, Morocco’s openness to global free trade, its rapid industrialization, its expanding network of modern infrastructure, as well as the existence of a genuine political will suggest that “tomorrow’s Morocco” will be an even more important actor in global dealings.
Le Point may have given little space to the challenges still holding Morocco back to make its overreaching case of Morocco becoming an indispensable player on the world stage. But the French magazine is hardly the first to shower Morocco with approving nods.
Over the past three to five years, Morocco has collected applause for, among other things, its growing assertiveness in Africa, its liberal-minded reforms, and its improving migration policy (even if some latest reports have indicated grey areas in terms of Morocco’s treatment of its expanding migrant populations.)
Writing in February of last year, Ozy Media dubbed Morocco “the new emerging African power.” Since it joined the African Union, Ozy remarked, the North African country has been “riding on a combination of politics, economics and religion” to influence African politics “at a time when there’s a regional vacuum to be filled.”
