The Casablanca-Settat region plans to adopt a regional development programme for the next 6 years. It should allow for the influence of the region at the national, continental and international levels.
It is done. The Casablanca-Settat region has just launched a call for tenders for the purpose of carrying out studies relating to the definition of a vision for land use planning, the development of the regional development programme and the steering of its implementation. The Regional Development Programme to be carried out is considered ambitious, pragmatic and broken down into operational projects. It should give the region a new positioning in the medium and long term, allowing for the influence of Casablanca-Settat at the national, continental and international levels. It will allow, among other things, to enhance the potential and assets of the region so as to strengthen its attractiveness and competitiveness, while ensuring the preservation of its natural environment and its environmental framework. "The Casablanca-Settat region, in accordance with its prerogatives, wishes to define a shared vision of land use planning and to develop a programme for the development of the Region.
Several reflections and actions have already been carried out in this direction by the various national and territorial actors; it is a question of establishing a coherent, exhaustive vision – with regard to the new division –, gaining the support of all and translating it into a programme and operational projects", indicate the officials of the region. According to them, the objective of the study is to provide the Casablanca-Settat region with a strategic vision setting a course for the next 25 years and defining a Regional Development Programme on the economic, social, environmental, etc. aspects, for the next six years which correspond to the mandate of the Regional Council. "The Regional Development Programme will be defined on the basis of the vision and positioning defined previously, taking into account the structuring projects contained in the development strategies put in place; in particular the Grand Casablanca Development Programme 2015-2020, as well as the national sectoral strategies and more generally all the projects underway or planned in the territory", they explain.
"It will be a question of aggregating, making coherent and completing several elements defined over different time horizons and responding to distinct objectives. It will also be a question of identifying new projects in coherence with the defined Vision", it is added. The study will focus, among other things, on benchmarks of regions in the world, having characteristics similar to the Casablanca-Settat region and having succeeded in their development. Note that the operationalisation of the Regional Development Programme will be materialised through the signing of a State-Region contract as well as specific implementation agreements. Furthermore, with regard to the characteristics of the region and the expectations of its inhabitants in terms of travel, mobility will hold a special place in this study; its breakdown into programmes and projects will be carried out within the framework of a regional mobility plan.
Finally, let us emphasise that the Casablanca-Settat development programme will be accompanied by the creation of the Regional Agency for Project Execution.