Rabat – Morocco’s central bank, Bank Al Maghrib (BAM), is to hold a joint conference with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the IMF Economic Review.
Scheduled for June 23-24 in Rabat, the conference will focus on medium to long-term post-COVID challenges facing emerging markets, according to a BAM press release.
Under the theme “Transformational Recovery: Seizing Opportunities from the Crisis,” the conference is inviting researchers to contribute with theoretical and empirical studies focusing on issues facing emerging and developing countries.
Selected papers will be published in a special issue of the IMF Economic Review, while COVID-triggered disruptions to efforts to address climate change, infrastructure, political uncertainty all figure on the conference agenda.
Read Also: IMF Moves Annual Meeting From Morocco to Washington
The conference will especially focus on the opportunities the pandemic has unlocked and deliberate on the question of whether the COVID-19 is offering emerging and developing countries the opportunity to “bounce back better,” according to the press release.
One of the aims of the event is to collect a large body of academic contributions centered around post-COVID-19 economic growth, the statement added.
Despite the COVID-induced global recession and the unequal recovery prospects due to unequal access to life-saving vaccines, COVID-19 is creating a new horizon of opportunities in the creative economy, social economy, and blue economy, argues an intergovernmental organization.
Lockdowns and social distancing measures accelerated the rate of digital adoption in emerging markets, and had an irreversible effect on consumer behavior in favor of the digital economy, according to a report by Quartz Africa.
While Morocco was going through one of the longest and strictest lockdowns worldwide, the Quartz Africa report explained, e-commerce flourished, leading to the creation of 300 new online retail businesses..
In a way, the report concluded, the pandemic led to a boom in e-commerce that will in all likelihood outlive the pandemic as people rave in the convenience and competitive prices online shopping offers.
Read Also: E-Commerce in Morocco Flourishes Beyond the Pandemic
