Picture: The King of Morocco, S.A.R. Mohammed VI holding the Crown Prince Moulay Al Hassan and his wife Princess Lalla Salma holding their daughter Princess Lalla Khadija (center), the king's brother Prince Moulay Al Rachid, and the King's three sisters.In the past decade Morocco has witnessed political liberalization and economic growth. The king is the head of the state in this Arab country; and he enjoys broad authority, yet many constitutional amendments were introduced in the nineties introducing new rights allowing many exiles to return to their homeland.
Morocco's economy is considered a relatively liberal economy governed by the law of supply and demand. Since 1993, the country has followed a policy of privatization of certain economic sectors which used to be in the hands of the government.
Trough government reforms and steady yearly growth in the region of 4-5% from 2000 to 2007, including 4.9% year-on-year growth in 2003-2007 the Moroccan economy is much more robust than just a few years ago. Economic growth is far more diversified, with new service and industrial poles, like Casablanca and Tangier, developing. The agriculture sector is being rehabilitated, which in combination with good rainfalls led to a growth of over 20% in 2009.
The services sector accounts for just over half of GDP and industry, made up of mining, construction and manufacturing, is an additional quarter. The sectors who recorded the highest growth are the tourism, telecoms and textile sectors. Morocco , however, still depends to an inordinate degree on agriculture. The sector accounts for only around 14% of GDP but employs 40-45% of the Moroccan population. With a semi-arid climate, it is difficult to assure good rainfall and Morocco’s GDP varies depending on the weather. Fiscal prudence has allowed for consolidation, with both the budget deficit and debt falling as a percentage of GDP.
The economic system of the country presents several facets. It is characterized by a large opening towards the outside world. France remains the primary trade partner (supplier and customer) of Morocco. France is also the primary creditor and foreign investor in Morocco. In the Arab world, Morocco has the second-largest non-oil GDP, behind Egypt, as of 2005.
Since the early 1980s the Moroccan government has pursued an economic program toward accelerating real economy growth with the support of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Paris Club of creditors. The country's currency, the dirham, is now fully convertible for current account transactions; reforms of the financial sector have been implemented; and state enterprises are being privatized.
The major resources of the Moroccan economy are agriculture, phosphates, and tourism. Sales of fish and seafood are important as well. Industry and mining contribute about one-third of the annual GDP. Morocco is the world's third-largest producer of phosphates (after the United States and China), and the price fluctuations of phosphates on the international market greatly influence Morocco's economy. Tourism and workers' remittances have played a critical role since independence. The production of textiles and clothing is part of a growing manufacturing sector that accounted for approximately 34% of total exports in 2002, employing 40% of the industrial workforce. The government wishes to increase textile and clothing exports from $1.27 billion in 2001 to $3.29 billion in 2010.
The high cost of imports, especially of petroleum imports, is a major problem. Another chronic problem is unreliable rainfall, which produces drought or sudden floods; in 1995, the country's worst drought in 30 years forced Morocco to import grain and adversely affected the economy. Another drought occurred in 1997, and one in 1999–2000. Reduced incomes due to drought caused GDP to fall by 7.6% in 1995, by 2.3% in 1997, and by 1.5% in 1999. During the years between drought, good rains brought bumper crops to market. Good rainfall in 2001 led to a 5% GDP growth rate. Morocco suffers both from unemployment (9.6% in 2008), and a large external debt estimated at around $20 billion, or half of GDP in 2002.
Among the various free trade agreements that Morocco has ratified with its principal economic partners, are The Euro-Mediterranean free trade area agreement with the European Union with the objective of integrating the European Free Trade Association at the horizons of 2012; the Agadir Agreement, signed with Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia, within the framework of the installation of the Greater Arab Free Trade Area; the US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement with United States which came into force in January 1, 2006 and lately the agreement of free exchange with Turkey.
Today Morocco faces two major challenges: stabilizing its economic growth and reducing unemployment. Though it has been improving throughout recent years, the Moroccan economy remains dependent on other countries and climate conditions. On the other hand, unemployment rates are high, especially among the educated and the participation of Moroccan women in the job market is among the weakest in the region.
Accordingly, 3.3 million jobs have to be created with the active population expected to grow significantly in the coming years. Fighting illiteracy and introducing education reforms to education are other needs, given that a great number of Moroccan employees are illiterate. Though participation in education has improved recently, especially among girls, very few are able to continue in higher education and almost half of university students leave college without getting a degree.
In numbers43% of the Moroccan population (34.343.219 in 2008) over the age of 10 are illiterate.
8% of Moroccans live abroad, and among them one million are employed.
In 2003, 51.3% of Moroccans were under the age of 25.
In order to boost the Moroccan economy and advance the capacity for reform in agriculture and the handicrafts industry, some organizations like the ETF has helped Morocco shape a strategic plan for developing apprenticeship schemes in those two sectors. The ETF is also working to improve young people’s employability, through the MEDA-ETE project. Moreover, it is assisting reforms for quality assurance in Moroccan vocational education and training and is promoting EU educational best practice.
With the help of the ETF, Morocco is pressing ahead with its plans to introduce a national qualifications framework (NQF) by 2011. Together with Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, Morocco has been involved for the past three years in a project looking at the benefits of introducing an NQF and what changes would this imply for the education system as a whole. In the case of Morocco, these could include introducing a system of quality assurance and establishing a separate qualifications agency. Our past work on easing accreditation procedures for private vocational education and training (VET) providers may also come in useful.
The ETF are also supporting the Higher Council of Education, established in 2006 to provide a platform for wide-ranging consultation and exchange of views, serve as an effective observatory to monitor the sector’s evolution, and submit proposals in connection with education and training issues.
EU's relations with Moroccohttp://ec.europa.eu/external_relations/morocco/index_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/where/neighbourhood/country-cooperation/morocco/morocco_en.htm
http://ec.europa.eu/trade/issues/bilateral/countries/morocco/index_en.htm
http://www.delmar.ec.europa.eu/
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