Blog

News: Headlines from the Moroccan Press: Wednesday, April 17, 2019

AUJOURD'HUI LE MAROC
Fundraising: 2018 recorded a record year with nearly 1.7 billion dirhams:
The year 2018 recorded a record in terms of fundraising with an amount of 1.681 billion dirhams (MMDH), according to the report of the Moroccan Association of Capital Investors (AMIC) on private equity activity, presented Tuesday in Casablanca. The total amount of fundraising in 2018 amounted to 1.681 billion dirhams, including 508 million dirhams of Moroccan funds and 1.173 billion dirhams of transregional funds, up from 1.318 billion dirhams in 2017, the AMIC said in its report. Transregional funds account for 77% of Morocco's fundraising over the 2012-2018 period, according to the report, which shows the availability of approximately 2.3 billion dirhams for investment outside infrastructure...

SIAM 2019: It begins:
The curtain rises on the 14th edition of the International Agricultural Show, which will be held in the Ismaili capital from April 16 to 21, 2019. The SIAM was inaugurated on Tuesday, April 16, 2019, by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Moulay El Hassan. As usual, the Agriculture Fair brings together professionals and the general public with the leitmotif of exchanging views on topics related to this vital sector for our country but also the objective of creating business opportunities. This edition will therefore be carried by the theme, "Agriculture, employment lever and the future of the rural world"...

LE MATIN DU SAHARA
Private equity: A record year 2018 for fundraising:
Private equity raised more than 1.68 billion dirhams in fundraising last year. A record figure according to the Moroccan Association of Capital Investors. The trend is expected to continue this year: no fewer than 11 asset management companies are considering fundraising. Some of this money will be used to take shares in companies operating in new technologies, agri-food, health and services, sectors that are highly valued by investors for the next 5 years...

Entrepreneurial ecosystem: The "Souk At Tanmia" program in the starting blocks:
A new multi-stakeholder platform for young entrepreneurs and project leaders. The African Development Bank (AfDB) is about to activate a new entrepreneurship support programme in Morocco, "Souk At Tanmia". To this end, it is organizing the national launch ceremony of this programme on April 22 in Guelmim. The latter is supported by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Danish Cooperation (DANIDA), which is mobilizing funding of €4.74 million, as we announced exclusively last December...


LES INSPIRATIONS ÉCO
South-South cooperation. Rabat reaches out to Pretoria:
Morocco's ambition is to make Moroccan-South African bilateral relations a model for the continent. The development of a free trade area and air links between the two countries is on the agenda. A few weeks after the appointment of a Moroccan ambassador in Pretoria - after a 15-year vacancy Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, addressed South Africans in an interview with the Sunday Times, the country's first weekly newspaper with a circulation of over 500,000 copies and more than three million regular readers...

African Patriotism:
Bourita has just confirmed that the Moroccan approach of separating economics from diplomacy is also being applied with South Africa. It clearly invites Pretoria to work hand in hand for better South-South cooperation. This is in line with the approach adopted by the sovereign with Nigeria and Ethiopia, the other two English-speaking African giants, with whom the brilliant idea of doing win-win business together has begun to soften political positions. It will take five or ten years, but the day will come when the economic interest of these peoples will prevail over a political error more than three decades old...


L'ECONOMISTE
Late organic laws:
Three draft organic laws are still missing. The process of adopting these constitutional texts has not progressed despite their transfer to Parliament in 2016. Three years later, they are still on stand-by at committee level in the House of Representatives. However, these are strategic projects, particularly concerning the regulation of the right to strike or the recognition of the official character of the Amazigh language and the modalities of its introduction into education...

TPE: The Dutch funds are coming in:
The entrepreneurial ecosystem, although fragmented, is more attractive to investment funds. This is the case of the Dutch Good Growth Fund (of Dutch origin), which has been operating in Morocco since 2018. Created at the initiative of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this fund targets local investment funds and other financial institutions that, in turn, finance companies...


LIBERATION
Retired people, these forgotten people: It is not only employees who are affected by the decline in purchasing power:
A glass that is half full is always half empty. Whatever we do, it will always be that way. So there goes that blissful optimism to which we have become accustomed by the followers of absolute pink. Exit also the pessimism of those who have opted for deep black as a sign of recognition. Between these two colours are other than the politicians in charge and those who are not refuse to see under their real days...

HM the King inquires about the rehabilitation projects of the former medina of Fez:
His Majesty King Mohammed VI visited on Monday several projects carried out as part of the rehabilitation and enhancement programmes of the former medina of Fez and launched the restoration work on the Al Batha Museum and the construction of a museum of Jewish culture. The projects, visited or launched by the Sovereign are in line with the enlightened vision of His Majesty the King to preserve the national heritage in all its forms of expression and to protect it for the benefit of future generations, as well as within the framework of efforts to promote the influence of the millenary city of Fez which has always been a model of coexistence between civilizations and cultures...