Since His Majesty King Mohammed VI, in his speech dated October 8, 2021, called for the establishment of a “new competitive pact for investment”, work has begun to implement this royal vision “as quickly as possible”, whose main objective is to support the dynamism of the Moroccan economy.
In this regard, Framework Law 03.22 was approved as the Investment Charter during the Ministerial Council on July 13, 2022 and then in Parliament on November 29, and was published in the Official Gazette on December 12, before the approval of its executive decree related to the activation of the main and strategic provisions during the Council of Government held on January 26, 2023.
At that time, a series of consultations were launched between the government, the concerned institutional bodies, and private sector actors, with a view to putting the final touches on the new investment pact and revealing the first outlines of its requirements.
On March 3, the government completed the legal arsenal related to activating the basic investment support system and the special support system applied to investment projects of a strategic nature by signing several decisions specifying the conditions for investors to obtain grants.
The new investment pact includes, in its first axis, four systems to support investment, including one basic support system and three special support systems directed to investment projects of a strategic nature and to small, small and medium enterprises, and to encourage Moroccan companies to be present at the international level.
The Basic Investment Support System offers three types of grants that can be combined within the limit of 30 percent of the investment amount, which are five joint grants, one land grant, and one sectoral grant. Eligibility for these scholarships is conditional upon meeting one of two strictly defined criteria.
In order to benefit from the basic support system grants, the investor must engage in an investment project whose total amount is equal to or greater than 50 million dirhams in addition to the creation of at least 50 jobs. The second eligibility criterion provides for the creation of at least 150 stable jobs.
When one of the two criteria is met, the investor is entitled to benefit from the various support grants offered by the state, in line with the criteria for each one of them.
The five joint grants for investments are allocated in implementation of the royal directives and the goals of the new development model and the government program.
+ Added value of the new investment charter +
Morocco has one of the highest investment rates in the world, accounting for 30 percent of the gross domestic product, against a global average of nearly 20 percent. Despite this, national investment lacks efficiency, as the share of state investment amounts to two-thirds of total investment, compared to the private sector’s contribution to only one-third.
This situation is also due to the insufficient directing of private investment towards job-generating and value-added sectors. In this sense, the importance of the new investment pact emerges.
The main objective of the charter is to reverse the equation of private and public investment, so that the private sector will occupy two-thirds, i.e. 350 billion dirhams, by the year 2035, and public investment will receive one-third, based on a strong commitment on the part of the authorities in favor of contracting in terms of taxes, real estate, access to public orders, or simplification of administrative procedures.
By 2026, the government aims, under this compact supported by the private and banking sectors, to mobilize 500 billion dirhams of private investment and create 500,000 jobs, in order to ensure consistency in the commitments of the various actors.
+ Roadmap that takes into account all bets +
The new investment charter embodies a comprehensive approach within the framework of the pursuit of the socio-economic development goals set by the Kingdom in the year 2026, and comes as a continuation of recent reforms, including the 2035 vision drawn by the new development model.
The new roadmap, which bears the motto of investment, aims to enhance the competitiveness of the Moroccan economy through a set of sub-measures related to improving the business climate and the principle of good governance.
In addition to its economic nature, the new investment pact seeks to be essentially comprehensive and, above all, to establish the necessary mechanisms to finance the major projects of the social state that Morocco aspires to establish.
By setting concrete and comprehensive measures at the social, economic and environmental levels, the new investment vision, which provides a transparent and stimulating legal framework for investors, seeks to ensure sustainable growth by working equally to integrate both the human element and the territorial and economic dimensions.
