“Exemplary management of the health crisis”; “The King of Morocco raises the health of Moroccans as a priority”; “The Kingdom, under the leadership of the Sovereign, has initiated important measures to contain the spread of the pandemic” … These are some headlines from the world media which have highly praised the quality of the management of the new pandemic coronavirus in the Kingdom. Management which did not omit the economic aspect by trying, firstly, to rescue and help households and businesses to cope with the shock, and which, secondly, focused on the implementation of a recovery strategy while studying in parallel the avenues to be used to revive the national economy.
Monday March 2, Morocco’s health authorities announced the first case of contamination by the new coronavirus. A virus that has started ravaging the world at different speeds. From then on, the Kingdom stepped up the watch to closely monitor the evolution of the pandemic. On Sunday March 15, 2020, His Majesty King Mohammed VI gives His High Instructions to the government to proceed with the immediate creation of a Special Fund dedicated to the management of the coronavirus pandemic. “This fund, endowed with 10 billion dirhams, will be reserved, on the one hand, to cover the costs of upgrading the medical device, in terms of adapted infrastructure and additional means to be acquired in an emergency . It will also serve to support the national economy, through a battery of measures that will be proposed by the government, particularly in terms of supporting sectors vulnerable to shocks induced by the Coronavirus crisis, such as the tourism, as well as in terms of job preservation and the mitigation of the social repercussions of this crisis. ”
On Tuesday March 17, 2020, HM the King chairs a working session devoted to monitoring the management of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic and continuing to take measures to cope with any development.
On the basis of the data presented by the Minister of Health, and therefore the concern for
HM the King to raise the capacities of the national health system to face this pandemic, the Sovereign gives His High Instructions to the Inspector General of the FAR to make the health structures equipped at the disposal of the health system with all its components, if needed. HM the King also gives His Directives to the competent authorities to ensure the proper application of efficient measures aimed at ensuring the supply of markets, throughout the national territory, with food and consumer products, hygiene and disinfection products , on a regular and permanent basis, and fight against all forms of speculation and rising prices.
In the same context, the Sovereign gives his High Instructions to the Head of Government and to all the departments concerned to take all the necessary measures, and to prepare for a new stage if necessary. On March 22, 2020, HM the King gave his High Instructions so that military medicine could take part jointly with his civilian counterpart in the delicate mission of fighting the pandemic of Covid-19. Subsequent important decisions have been taken to mitigate the impact of this health crisis on Moroccan citizens, and even on the rest of the continent. In fact, HM the King is proposing the launch of an initiative by African Heads of State aimed at establishing an operational framework in order to support African countries in their various phases of managing the pandemic. “A pragmatic and action-oriented initiative, allowing the sharing of experiences and good practices, to deal with the health, economic and social impact of the pandemic”. It is in this same context that Morocco has sent significant aid to 15 African countries to support them in the fight against the pandemic.
The constant concern of His Majesty the King
Mohammed VI for the safety and security of citizens, as well as the High Instructions of the Sovereign and the mobilization of all living forces have enabled the Kingdom to control the epidemiological situation, but also to reassure the companies which, for the most part, have maintain their activities while taking the necessary measures and precautions to protect their employees. Thus, on June 3, HM the King called on the CGEM and the Ministry of Health to deploy a massive screening action in the participatory framework of pandemic management.
Indeed, alongside the health emergency, the urgency to save the economy was at the top of the priorities. Considerable efforts are then made to limit the repercussions of this pandemic, by granting financial aid to nearly 7 million families and beneficiaries to support purchasing power and internal consumption. Mechanisms have also been adopted to support and accompany businesses through the preservation of public investment and the improvement of performance times for public establishments, as well as the facilitation of access to credits or the delay of their delivery times. payment, or even the activation of the partnership between the public and private sectors with a view to transforming the activities of certain companies for the production of means of prevention and medical supplies.
After the decision to lift the containment, on June 25, all attention is turned to the government which is working on the preparation of an economic recovery plan which should outline the main directions in the short and medium terms. Like the CGEM, which presented its proposal for a recovery plan for the national economy on May 21, before the economic watch committee, the various political, economic and social players are called upon to mobilize and enrich the national debate on the issue to allow our country to successfully restart its economy and above all meet the expectations of the economic fabric, revive the job market and return to growth.
In this special edition, we try to take stock of the situation by calling on professionals, experts and economic players from different sectors. The opportunity to debate with them, in particular within the framework of our program L’Info en Face, of the tracks and proposals that they consider capable of reviving the national economy.
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