Morocco launches Rawaj Plan to boost domestic trade

2007-06-29

Morocco's government has undertaken a new project to stimulate the domestic trade sector through the creation of new financial tools to aid merchants and a series of investments to optimise local commerce at all levels.

By Lahcen Moqnia for Magharebia in Casablanca – 29/06/2007

[Lahcen Moqnia] Moroccan Prime Minister Driss Jettou (left), said the domestic trade sector receives special attention from the government because of its strategic importance

Morocco's Prime Minister Driss Jettou announced the launch of the Rawaj Plan Tuesday (June 26th). The plan aims to boost the domestic trade sector, modernise its various components, increase its performance by 2020 and create a trade development fund directed at supporting the promotion and modernisation of small merchants' business activities.

Prime Minister Jettou said the domestic trade sector receives special attention from the Moroccan government because of its strategic importance, as it employs around 10.6% of the population, or 1.2 million people. The annual value added for the sector is 63 billion dirhams, or 11% of Morocco’s GDP.

According to Jettou, the plan is one of a series of measures the Moroccan government has taken since the beginning of the year to support trade activities. The government has worked to improve the basic system of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry by elevating the level of its services and support for merchants. It has also taken measures to raise workers' standard of living in the trade sector. One such initiative was the creation of the INAYA health care package for small merchants and professionals, and the FOGARIM fund to provide mortgage loans for social groups with low incomes, as well as the TAMWIL product to help small merchants and professionals obtain bank loans.

Jettou said that the Rawaj plan aims to increase the size of domestic trade sector’s contribution to Morocco’s GDP from the current 11% to 15% by 2020, and to generate nearly 450,000 jobs.

Morocco's Minister of Industry, Commerce and Economic Development, Salaheddine Mezouar, said the Rawaj plan depends on strengthening integration between three branches of commercial activity: proximity trade areas, large and medium-sized modern commercial centres, and wholesale markets.

For proximity trade, the plan aims to protect small and independent merchants by helping them align their activities with changing patterns of consumption and by insulating them from threats from the expansion of modern commercial areas. Mezouar said, "We set, as one goal of the plan, increasing the number of commercial shops of this type from the current 850,000 to 980,000 by 2020 and boosting the size of their sales from the current 54.7 billion dirhams to 101 billion dirhams."

The government has chosen to establish a special trade development fund to support these merchants. Mezouar told Magharebia the fund would be financed by 200m dirhams as the first disbursement, and the government would incorporate it within its budget for 2008.

As for large and mid-sized commercial centres, the plan aims to increase them from the current 50 to 600 by 2020, to increase their total area from the current 142 hectares to 1000 hectares, and to increase the number of employees who work there from 8,000 to 90,000 and the volume of their transactions from 8.2 billion dirhams to 26 billion dirhams.

The plan will reduce the number of wholesale markets from 42 to 16 by 2020, to enhance their profitability and utility. Mezouar said the goal is one wholesale market in each of Morocco's 16 administrative regions. The plan is expected to expand wholesale market transactions from 5.3 billion dirhams to 33 billion dirhams by 2020.

The plan also calls for the establishment of 15 malls on 180 hectares, which would create 20,000 new jobs.