New Generation of Urban Planning Documents to be Created for Promotion of Investment – Minister –

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Minister of National Territory Planning, Urbanism, Housing and Urban Policy, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, said Monday that her department is working to create a new generation of urban planning documents that “will be characterized by flexibility in terms of specifications, which will promote investment”. El Mansouri, who was responding to an oral question at the House of Representatives on “The role of urban agencies in encouraging investment and boosting local development,” said the Ministry of supervision is working to create 12 large urban agencies in Morocco’s regions to strengthen their strategic dimension and planning. As part of its strategy to encourage investment, the government has adopted several measures including the generalization of the circular of December 6 which requires urban agencies to reconsider many projects rejected in 2021 because of administrative problems, she said, noting that these projects would mobilize investments worth 27 billion dirhams and contribute to the creation of job opportunities. She specified that the Ministry of supervision has worked to generalize the pre-instructions to monitor the progress of projects with investors and professionals, and facilitate the granting of licenses, as well as it asked the Ministry of Interior to work together on the platform “Rokhas” which suffers from technical problems related mainly to the setting of deadlines. Regarding “the implementation of economic and social housing projects”, the Minister pointed out that the pandemic of the coronavirus has impacted the housing sector, with projects experiencing a decline of 50% between 2019 and 2020. In this regard, El Mansouri said that a study of the Ministry has revealed that the demand for housing has reached two million units, 73% of which concern the middle class and the most vulnerable, stressing that her department seeks to bring the supply to demand, mainly through the implementation of the New Development Model which advocates direct support of the citizen, social cohesion and improving the quality of construction. The Ministry will also rely on consultations with professionals to develop a new housing program to meet the expectations of Moroccans, she stressed.