Rabat – Improving Morocco’s presence in foreign markets, cultivating deep relationships with East African countries and spreading the kingdom’s model of economic development: the three things the McKinsey Global Institute recommends that Morocco do in Africa to ensure a speedy continental rise.
A December 19th report by the U.S.-based consulting firm identified Morocco as “well-positioned: to benefit from the explosive growth Africa expects to see by the year 2020.
The kingdom’s existing automobile sector could be expanded to service other African countries, instead of marketing to primarily Moroccan and European customers, the report commented.
McKinsey says Casablanca Finance City’s success provides another opportunity for Morocco to wield its influence in the continent, especially as South Africa’s center in Johannesburg wanes.
Strong economic ties with Anglophone Africa would go a long ways towards diversifying Morocco partners across the continent, the report says, though this recommendation has already begun to be implemented through King Mohammed VI’s recent tours of Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Nigeria.
The monarch visited each country with an entourage of Moroccan businessmen who signed contracts with their counterparts in each country.
Morocco’s compatibility with Nigeria is particularly poignant as the latter’s biggest businessman is currently in efforts to secure the kingdom’s phosphate to supply major fertilizer plants.
Policy sharing, especially in human development and economic projects, should be a major goal for Rabat, the consulting firm notes. Strategies used in Morocco’s successful government housing and rural electrification projects should be shared with African countries that face similar obstacles.
All three suggestions work will with Rabat’s existing South-South cooperation model, which demonstrated itself at the COP22 event in Marrakesh this year via the AAA program for African agriculture.
