Productive Sectors Committee at the House of Representatives Discusses Impacts of COVID-19 on National Economy
The Productive Sectors Committee at the House of Representatives held a meeting on Tuesday, June 9th, 2020, under the chairmanship of Committee’s Chairperson, Said Chbaatou, with Minister of Industry, Trade, Green and Digital Economy Hafid El Alamy. The meeting was devoted to reviewing the Government strategy to revive the sector of industry, trade, green and digital economy after COVID-19, and mitigate the pandemic’s impacts on it.
In his statement, the Minister presented the three phases that mark the management of the current situation. The first phase focused on preserving the health of citizens and prioritizing the protection of their life. In this respect, the Minister affirmed that “Morocco has successfully overcome this phase thanks to the courageous measures that were taken following the Royal directives, which included border shutdowns.” According to the Minister, the second phase concerns “reviving the economic fabric and supporting enterprises to overcome the crisis.” The latter has proven the competence of Moroccan employees, and the capacity of the Moroccan economy to adapt to the most difficult situations. The third phase focuses on drawing the conclusions, lessons, and available opportunities that resulted from this situation.
Mr. El Alamy commended the efforts of young Moroccan technicians, workers, and engineers, as they “managed, thanks to their training in the aircraft industry, to manufacture respirators, sterilizers made of ethanol, face masks, and coronavirus test kits using PCR method, under the supervision of the Moroccan Foundation for Advanced Science, Innovation, and Research (MAScIR).” The Minister noted that “the Moroccan economy involves factories, companies, workers, and business owners that have shown a solidarity spirit deep-rooted in Moroccan society.”
He also highlighted that great lessons had been drawn from this pandemic, especially regarding the strong capacity of Morocco to overcome such problems, and the existence of highly qualified people in innovation and creation, which should be trusted and believed in.
Also, Mr. El Alamy stated that “the factories that operate in the food industry did not shut down during the pandemic and worked hard daily to supply the national market.” He also said that “the consumption of food supplies at the beginning of the health crisis was six times more than the numbers usually recorded in normal days, which is a result of the great demand of these products out of fear of their depletion due to the crisis.”
Besides, the Minister affirmed the existence of a strong international competition to attract car manufacturers. In the same respect, he considered that Morocco is competing on a “global level.” The Minister predicted that the relaunch of economic activities in Morocco will be faster than the expectations with one month, as the Standard and Poor’s index predicted “the return of markets to their pre-corona level, as the end-of-year figures of industry operations will decrease by 20% instead of 30% that was predicted one month ago, and that the trade figures will decrease by 15% instead of the predicted 25%.”
In addition, the Minister tackled the measures taken by his department to face the pandemic and the latter’s impacts on economic activities. In this respect, he noted that “the first indicators show that the pandemic had severe repercussions on the national economy, as it recorded a decrease by 20% at the level of exports, compared to April 2019.”
As regards workplace hotspots recorded within factories, the Minister noted that “recording numerous infections within factories does not imply that they are the source of the pandemic, stressing that these factories cannot be hotbeds of the pandemic as they have implemented social distancing, and adopted the protective measures strictly.”
In the same context, Mr. El Alamy stated that “only 0.6% of the tests that were done on 52% of the factories nationwide were positive,” noting “the record of one positive case amidst 17,000 tests performed by the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM).”
As for accompanying the economic actors, the national industry was mobilized to meet the demands regarding face masks and basic commodities. Regarding digitization, many projects have been realized, including the mobile application “Wiqayatna.”
Following the presentation of the Minister, the deputies members in the Committee and representatives of the parliamentary groups and caucus agreed on the difficulty of the situation and on the importance of joining forces to engage all citizens and enterprises, including small and medium-sized ones. They also called for implementing a Government strategy that ensures social protection for many groups like craftsmen, artisans, and workers in the informal sector.
The deputies also called for “the engagement of the banking sector for a faster relaunch of the economic cycle by providing funding that takes into consideration the peculiarity of some sectors and the difficulties they underwent during the period.” They also called for giving priority to reviving tourism.
Additionally, some participants stressed the importance of encouraging foreign investments in Morocco, especially considering the fierce competition to attract investments, mainly during the period following the pandemic. The participants added that “despite the efforts deployed in helping investors access lands, some issues can still only be solved through a digitization plan that the Government should prepare to provide a good climate for that purpose.” Besides, the deputies called for adopting a Moroccan industrial policy and institutionalizing the promotion of innovation and creation.
Later, the Minister took the floor to respond to the comments of the deputies. In his response, he affirmed that “it is normal to amend the free-trade agreements to redress some inconsistencies in the trade balance.” The Minister also mentioned several other procedures to reduce the subscription fees to the National Social Security Fund (CNSS) for traders and craftsmen.
Regarding the questions of the deputies on car manufacturing, the Minister affirmed that “Morocco is a strong competitor,” and that “the international car manufacturing companies decided to resume their activity in Morocco considering its high competitiveness in this sector and the high skills of Moroccan engineers, technicians and workers.” Also, the Minister highlighted that “many factories around the world have shut down their activities, and the first companies to resume their work are in Morocco.”