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Rabat – The US-based Moroccan American Network hosted the Sixth Morocco Day event from January 17-19. The event took place virtually due to the COVID-19 health crisis.
The Moroccan American Network hosts the yearly event to celebrate relations between the two countries and to discuss opportunities for bilateral cooperation.
The 2021 Morocco Day celebrated three Moroccan cities: Laayoune, Dakhla, and Essaouira. Under the slogan “Tourism and Handicrafts: Two Pillars for Leveraging and Repositioning the Moroccan Economy in the Post-Epidemic World,” the event discussed the path to ensure Morocco’s economic revival in these unprecedented times.
A number of businessmen and investors from the Washington area, as well as young Moroccan entrepreneurs from the cities of Laayoune and Dakhla, participated in the session.
The discussion underlined opportunities for investment in Morocco’s southern regions. The participants encouraged bilateral partnerships in the region as a leverage for its social and economic development. They also explored the promising prospects of the sectors of tourism and handicraft for local development and international partnerships alike.
The meeting highlighted shared hopes to transform Morocco’s southern regions into an Arab, African, and global trade and investment hub.
Read also: Sixth ‘Morocco Day’ Event Set to Celebrate Morocco-US Relations
The first day of the event focused on US-Moroccan business relations, stressing the significance of US President Trump’s recent proclamation on Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. During the event, Samir Bennis, a foreign policy expert and the editor-in-chief of Morocco World News, shared his vision on how Morocco can further attract foreign investment.
Bennis said the business and economic ties between Morocco and the United States have room for improvement. He argued that Morocco can further attract US and international investments by abolishing language barriers and reforming its legal framework.
“In Morocco, we are still unable to detach ourselves from French as the main business language,” he said. We tend to forget that when we speak English, when we market ourselves in English, we are not only speaking to the US market but to a worldwide one.” For Bennis, implementing English-speaking training to Moroccan workers in order to facilitate communication with investors will boost the country’s attractiveness and improve its economic outlook.
The policy analyst also underlined the legal challenges facing foreign investors. “We need to make great efforts at the state level to align our legal framework with international standards,” Bennis said.
Meanwhile, Hammadi Filali, a Moroccan entrepreneur and investor, outlined the opportunities of investment for small and medium enterprises in Moroccan Sahara. Building on Bennis’s points, Filali celebrated the prospects of a new chapter in US Moroccan trade and investment cooperation. He also stressed the wealth of human and natural resources in Morocco’s southern provinces, suggesting the region has the potential to become an investment hub.
Morocco Day 2021 attracted renowned participants, public figures academics, professionals, innovators, and Moroccan-American entrepreneurs. The event celebrated the legacy of Martin Luther King as well as the Moroccan explorer, Mostafa El Zemouri, as the first African-Moroccan to set foot on American shores.
