Jordanian Media Highlight Development in Morocco’s Southern Provinces

The dynamics of socio-economic development that the southern provinces of the Kingdom are experiencing, under the enlightened leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, has been highlighted by Jordanian media. Jordanian newspapers, including Alanbat, Jouhaina News and Nabd Elbalad, stressed Morocco’s commitment to the development of these Provinces and improve the standard of living of their inhabitants through the “unique” and “comprehensive” New Development Model for the Southern Provinces. Through this development model, an envelope of nearly $8.8 billion, Morocco aims to achieve economic and social development for the benefit of the people of the Southern Provinces, through the funding of more than 600 projects, which should create 120,000 jobs, the media added. After seven years of its implementation, the results and the rate of achievement of the new development model are impressive, added the newspapers, making known that 70% of the projects planned by this model have been completed. This “exceptional figure” that has been achieved in a short period of time involves huge investment projects, related to infrastructure (roads, ports and airports), to make the Southern Provinces an economic pole oriented towards Africa and to play a decisive role in national, regional and continental development, the same source continued. The investment projects also include the sectors of health, vocational training, industry, agriculture, renewable energy, tourism, mining, aquaculture, as well as the social sector, stressed the media, noting that the realization of these projects has been accompanied by development indicators that have demonstrated the achievement of positive development, especially in the field of employment market. Morocco aims today to achieve social and economic development for its Southern Provinces in parallel with the economic development experienced by other regions of the Kingdom, they stressed. They also noted that with this strategy supported by concrete and measurable results, the performance of the Southern Provinces was better than the rest of the regions of Morocco, especially in terms of GDP per capita, which is 50% higher than the national average and poverty rate is 3 times lower than the national average. The newspapers also highlighted the continued efforts to make the Southern Provinces an economic pole and a hub for sustainable and global development, and which is illustrated in particular, with the organization by Dakhla of the Morocco-France Business Forum in October 2019, the Morocco-US Investment Forum in March 2022 and the Morocco-Spain Business Forum last June. These forums aim to strengthen economic relations, consolidate the region’s economy and promote its potential and investment opportunities to international businessmen, it was explained, adding that these events were designed to highlight the region’s investment potential and bring together companies and institutional stakeholders to facilitate foreign investment in Dakhla.