Interior minister holds meeting with governors, senior officials on royal letter on investment
Morocco, Economics, 1/10/2002

Moroccan minister of the interior, Driss Jettou, held a meeting in Rabat Wednesday afternoon with the walis (senior governors), governors and senior officials of his department to ponder on new initiatives related to the management of investment devolution announced by king Mohammed VI.

Jettou expounded the significance and content of the royal speech delivered by the sovereign before handing the prime minister a letter and urged his department officials to see to a sound implementation of the royal instructions in matters of investments and good governance, a release by the interior ministry said.

The minister underlined the importance of the royal initiative to set up regional investment centers-- that will extend assistance to investors and to people wishing to set up enterprises-and urged the walis and governors to initiate actions likely to give a new momentum to economic activity, improve the investment environment and contribute to the consolidation of the rule of law in business.

He called them to give incentives to small and medium-sized enterprises, to set up industrial areas and to promote infrastructures.

Jettou who also spoke of the ongoing reforms on decentralization and devolution, of the amendment of the Communal Charter and of the reform of prefectoral and provincial assemblies announced the adoption shortly of a charter that will define a distribution of responsibilities between the State and the new local communities.

The interior minister also dealt with the coming elections, recalling the sovereign's resolve to hold the polls at their constitutional schedule and urging the walis and governors to mobilize to ensure a sound unfolding of the elections in the frame of transparency and honesty. The elections process, he insisted, is a fundamental democratic exercise in a state where the rule of the law prevails.

King Mohammed VI renewed, in the speech he delivered in Casablanca, determination to strengthen the process of devolution, deconcentration and regionalization, dismantle all administrative obstacles, which stand on the way of free enterprise, and fight all the hurdles that impede investment activities.

The sovereign explained that the letter on investment management devolution that he was addressing to the Prime Minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, was "meant to streamline the administrative procedures set for investors." "Thus the investor will be dealing with one single official and interlocutor, reporting to one desk and filling out one single form, to set up his business or to develop his investments," the sovereign said.

King Mohammed VI urged the cabinet members to promote investments, mainly by devising a strategic vision, and setting priorities in all investment-related areas, and to foster "an investment-friendly environment, through the implementation of rational, streamlined, and investment-conducive reforms, within the judiciary, administrative and fiscal systems, and the social environment," and to "see to it that the content of the Royal Letter is carried out according to schedule and in a spirit of patriotic motivation." He likewise urged Walis (senior governors) and Governors, to discharge their mission in a spirit of citizenship, in compliance with the law and in coordination with the public authorities, with the elected bodies and with the economic operators.

Previous Stories:
  France donates Morocco 4 mln euro for industrial upgrading and research   (1/9/2002)
  King Mohammed takes moves to strengthen devolution process, promote free initiative   (1/9/2002)
  Morocco, Egypt resolved to promote economic cooperation   (1/7/2002)

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