World bank approves $ 250 mln loan to Morocco
The World Bank board of governors approved on Tuesday a loan worth $ 250 million to support economic and social reforms undertaken by the Moroccan government.
The loan approval will entail the granting of an additional $ 200 million by the African Development Bank.
The loan is reimbursable over 20 years with a five-year grace period.
The Moroccan government's program seeks to maintain macroeconomic stability while accelerating economic growth and reducing poverty, within a framework of institutional reform that promotes better governance and greater transparency, which in turn will help the prospects for sustainability.
The WB-backed program is geared towards a high, sustained and job-generating policy likely to secure a greater social justice, with reforms embracing all sectors to reach a 6% growth rate target needed to reduce unemployment.
Private sector will be thus encouraged to increase its value-generating, the international competitiveness of Moroccan enterprises will be enhanced, and a good political management will be promoted to attract foreign investments.
Actions will also be undertaken to ameliorate the administration performance through promoting more transparency and coherence in the state's budgetary commitments, improving services extended by the administration to users, upgrading the work conditions of civil servants, decentralizing the administrative apparatus and modernizing the judiciary system.
The government also plans to carry on the privatization program, involve private companies in infrastructure projects, adopt a set of fiscal and social regulations and laws on competition and modernize the banking sector.
In the social field, efforts will be made to encourage an active participation of the population in the development efforts and promote a fair distribution of the growth fruits. Other measures in the field include the promotion of women status, undertaking adults' literacy programs and more actions for employment and re-organizing the labor market.