In this interview, the President of Casablanca-Settat, Abdellatif Maazouz, addresses the issue of advanced regionalisation on the sidelines of the conference recently organised in Tangier, as well as the region's development programme and its multiple challenges.
Interview by Laila Lamrani
What is the main recommendation of the second edition of the advanced regionalisation conference held from 20 to 21 December in Tangier?
During this conference, several recommendations were formulated, focusing in particular on the completion of the advanced regionalisation project driven by the enlightened vision of HM King Mohammed VI, may God assist him, while taking into account, of course, all the constraints and specificities related to the implementation of this royal project. If I have one recommendation to highlight in this regard, it would be the acceleration of the implementation of the Administrative Deconcentration Charter with a view to strengthening integrated territorial governance. It is also important to complete the application of the roadmap relating to the Orientation Framework for the operationalisation of the exercise by the regions of their competencies, particularly those related to urban and inter-municipal transport, job-creating investment, and water.
From your perspective as president of Morocco's largest region, what are the prerequisites and mechanisms that condition efficient advanced regionalisation?
Efficient advanced regionalisation leads to better convergence of public policies through their implementation at the territorial level. Equipping the Regions (Regional Councils and decentralised services) with more autonomy of action, framed by existing programming tools (SRAT, PDR, and budgets). Encouraging regions to take ownership of their main specific prerogatives and deepen their deployment across all territories; this is the only way to ensure the inclusion of rural territories in the development process that our country is experiencing under the enlightened leadership of HM King Mohammed VI. This cannot be done without the availability of the human and financial resources necessary for the implementation of these policies. In this context, our Regional Development Programme (PDR) 2022-2027 aims to increase the role of the Casablanca-Settat Region as a locomotive, as our PDR vision so well translates: "Casablanca-Settat: A region accelerating inclusive and sustainable territorial development, on economic and human levels". Today, it is time for synergy between all active forces to succeed in this royal project, notably through the implementation of a participatory approach at the regional and local level, in addition to the proactive promotion of the territorial attractiveness of the regions and their capacity to attract and diversify sustainable and innovative financing capable of facing the challenges of today and tomorrow, as advocated by the second edition of the National Conference on Advanced Regionalisation.
You took the reins of the Casablanca-Settat region in September 2021. What is your state of mind three years after taking office?
I am in a state of mind of struggle and commitment to the development of the region and to reducing the gaps between its various components. It is not always easy, I admit, given the constraints we encounter, but it is a challenge that we, as the country's leading region, must meet in the interest of the population and for the country's progress and economic influence.
From the battery of projects covering all sectors approved by the Regional Council during the ordinary session last October for the 2025 financial year, the concern for territorial cohesion emerges. How is this strategic vision translated on the ground for the benefit of the provinces making up the region?
Regarding the planning of the PDR and its deployment, I will take the two most extreme cases to illustrate my point. Greater Casablanca, a dynamic hub, which works well and suffers from a problem related to land-use planning and which is becoming increasingly expensive and out of reach for the middle class. In our territorial scheme, we ensure that Greater Casablanca, stretching from Nouaceur to Mohammedia, is supported by high value-added activities offering well-paid employment to cope with the high cost of living. We have, for example, the Casa Finance City hub, with its modern business district, shops, buildings, and restaurants. The Nouaceur hub is dedicated to Morocco's global trades, particularly aeronautics and research. And at a less significant level, Zenata, which is being built on the same economic model, without forgetting, of course, the centre of Casablanca.
Of course, this does not happen by itself or with a snap of the fingers; there is a great deal of work behind it, investments, planning, and a battery of incentive measures. This scheme concerns, if I may say so, the favourable cases. For the extremely unfavourable cases, the region has several communes between Settat, Benslimane, and Sidi Bennour, of which about sixty are almost distressed. Here, things lack order and organisation, and the general conditions are not up to the ambitions of a region like Casablanca-Settat. We have mobilised for these marginalised territories to provide them with basic infrastructure such as drinking water, lighting, public sanitation, schools, preschools, health centres, and local activity zones to allow residents to work and create jobs.
What about the other territories in the region?
The other components of the region are well organised with a fairly clear development roadmap. This concerns Benslimane, a province that stands out for its microclimate and its ecological vocation, which is oriented, in accordance with the high royal guidelines, towards sustainable activities such as sport, health, and well-being. Two other provinces, El Jadida and part of Sidi Bennour, are rather turned towards intensive industrial activities, heavy industry intended for export, and tourism thanks to the cultural attractions and the seaside potential offered by the sites of Oualidia, Azemmour, and Mazagan.
The core of agriculture and livestock is found in the province of Settat; the southern part of Berrechid and the eastern part of Sidi Bennour offer real assets for the development of agricultural activity with products valued for export and a fabric of processing industries. The creation of an industrial zone in Settat over an area of 50 hectares and another in Ben Ahmed are part of this vision. We are also working on two similar zones in Sidi Bennour and Berrechid. This province is already equipped with a 300-hectare agri-food platform and a new-generation wholesale market. In the rural commune of Laghdira, in El Jadida, we have created an industrial zone of 257 hectares which reinforces the international dimension of industrial activity in the province. All the active forces of the region are working to concretise the projects programmed in each of the provinces while respecting the identity of each territory.
What about the opening up of isolated areas, which conditions the development of a region?
Opening up isolated areas is one of the priorities of the regional council, aware of the fact that certain territories in the region need to be brought out of their isolation in order to be better integrated through the construction of new roads. To meet this challenge, the region has mobilised significant funding: some 2.1 billion DH to connect communes and their Douars, an envelope of 1 billion DH for connection to electricity and drinking water networks, and 1.5 billion DH for the sanitation network.
As a single point of contact, the regional multi-service company (SEM) has facilitated our task regarding the regulatory provisions vis-Ă -vis the areas concerned.
Are you satisfied, as president of the regional council, with the degree of involvement of other local authorities, particularly the commune, in the process of development and upgrading of their respective territories?
In local authorities in general, we suffer from a skills problem that is even more acute in rural communes. In these small entities, human skills to prepare files, just like financial resources, are cruelly lacking. It is from our region that these destitute communes seek the advice and expertise they need.
Admittedly, we act as best we can to help within the framework of the PDR (Regional Development Plan). But we do not always have a free hand in the face of a communal reality that is often more complex due to a lack of means.
What can you do with a surplus of 10 to 15 million DH? That is not even the budget to build a Souk!
I am in my fourth year of my term and I can assure you that the means have not evolved; it is still the same budget while expectations at all levels have become numerous.
But how do you manage to face this situation of insufficient resources?
I was lucky to have inherited from my predecessors a surplus of 10 million DH which allowed us to finance the first extra-budgetary needs of the first years. Acting according to the means allocated to it, and they are not considerable, the region cannot unfortunately meet all expectations, whether in terms of public guidelines or the expectations of disadvantaged communes. Especially since our country's organisation of the 2030 World Cup has imposed additional projects for the region, which is participating, alongside other actors, with a contribution of 1 billion DH for infrastructure. The process is still in its early stages. Infrastructure is important because it acts as a catalyst and an accelerator of development.
But to what extent is this infrastructure useful and decisive in the take-off and growth of the region?
You know, in economic theory, the utility function is subjective. Utility is defined and assessed in the light of a vision, in relation to an objective. Casablanca-Settat is a large region that includes 154 communes, including that of Casablanca. Our vision, shared by the various actors and partners, consists of acting to preserve its leadership and its capital, Casablanca, as a leading national and continental hub. This leadership, to which we are very attached, is multidimensional: economic, social, political, and infrastructural. It is also expressed in the living environment, the trades, and the various opportunities offered in different sectors. Morocco stands out as a regional leader in the field of skills training. At the level of the Casablanca-Settat region, we are leaders in several trades, an asset that must be developed and new ones created. In Morocco's new global trades, Casablanca has become an aeronautics platform that we must preserve. Nouaceur, its location, is not just manufacturing workshops. Behind this high value-added activity, a whole ecosystem has developed. Research, vocational and university training, investors, means of transport, shops, leisure venues, a living environment... Development calls for development... It is a virtuous circle that is built over the long term and cannot be decreed.
In 2014, HM King Mohammed VI launched the Greater Casablanca Development Plan (PDGC). Where does this major project stand?
I must admit that the PDGC has, on certain projects, fallen behind the initial schedule. We are working hard to make up for this delay. Yes, the projects launched by our country within the framework of the region are useful in the sense that they first benefit the citizen and the community and contribute to their well-being. This is the case, for example, of a well-maintained and regularly watered park. People are happy to have a space for breathing and relaxation. New-generation stadiums, like the one in Benslimane, are being built. Local sports fields are becoming widespread...
The water stress hitting Morocco makes us realise the strategic importance of resorting to desalination and developing wastewater treatment plants... How are you managing this major problem of water scarcity at the regional level?
Water stress is not a surprise to us, but what surprised us most is its scale. A budget of 27 billion was allocated to everything related to connection works, basins, dams, and desalination plants in 2010. But these projects experienced a delay in their execution. HM King Mohammed VI is very directive on this highly strategic file, for which he himself follows the projects and their progress.
Due to its demographic growth and its economic and industrial vocation, Casablanca-Settat is the region that suffers most from water stress, with one of the lowest water reserve-to-population ratios. The public authorities have taken matters into their own hands, by adopting short- and long-term solutions to mitigate the effects of this stress on the populations and the agricultural sector. In the short term, it was necessary to resort to the water transfer mechanism from the Saiss-Bouregreg perimeter to supply the northern part of Casablanca, while the southern part was supplied by the El Jadida desalination plant. For the long term, the Casablanca-Settat region is banking on 32 desalination plants, four of which are already operational. For the reuse of wastewater, the region has three treatment plants, one in MĂ©diouna, another in El Hank, and another plant currently under construction in Zenata.
In fact, the water emergency poses colossal challenges for us as a country and region, pushing us to adapt to climate change, to act with diligence and efficiency, and as citizen-consumers, to rationalise the use of this precious commodity. People do not know that we spent last August, September, and October managing water reserves in the region sparingly, day by day. Faced with this critical situation, OCP was a great help to us, and in this regard, I would like to thank the group's management, which reduced its own water needs to supply El Jadida, the commune of Moulay Abdallah, and Azemmour, which were almost dry. We must also pay tribute to the Wali of the region, who has been a formidable accelerator for us in the realisation of several infrastructure projects and an expert and experienced source of proposals.
What are the key factors of the Casablanca-Settat region's attractiveness and to what extent can they contribute to its competitiveness in a context of exacerbated globalisation?
It must be specified that Casablanca was born with a globalised metropolis vocation since it was built from the start around an international-scale port. Globalisation is inscribed in Casablanca's DNA. It is naturally the country's economic engine, its financial hub, and its primary industrial, medical, and university centre. Casablanca is also a continental exchange platform and an export hub to other countries... All these assets make the Casablanca-Settat region a territory with a globalised vocation with ambitions of unavoidable leadership that must be defended, preserved, and developed. The region has three major ports: that of Casablanca, that of Jorf Lasfar in El Jadida, and that of Mohammedia.
An international air hub, the Casablanca Mohammed V airport will be reinforced by the construction of a new airport with a capacity of 20 million passengers. To these platforms, we must add the Benslimane airport and the small Tit Mellil airport. Regarding roads and motorways, the region benefits from good connectivity that rail will enrich and strengthen through the project of the new Casablanca-Marrakech high-speed line (LGV). By 2029, the region will be equipped with the largest multimodal station in Africa, where all modes of transport will meet. Casablanca-Settat is sincerely worth a visit. It is full of various attractions that make it not only a business destination but also a privileged high place for the practice of other forms of tourism such as medical tourism or cultural and rural tourism.
You spoke of Casablanca's economic leadership. Strong and sustainable leadership also assumes qualified human resources. How does the region interact with this crucial issue in a context of globalised skills?
On this subject, I will take off, if you allow me, my hat as regional president and put on my hat as a former Minister for Moroccans Living Abroad (MRE). Morocco's strength lies in its openness, which necessarily translates into mobility, both in and out, incoming and outgoing. From there, there is no shame in seeking skills where they are found, especially since Morocco is an attractive country where life is good.
The 2030 World Cup will certainly reinforce this openness...
For me, the World Cup can be summed up in two key words: a catalyst and an accelerator. A catalyst because this global sporting event will allow the kingdom to better position itself globally, and an accelerator because it will allow our country to gain many world-class infrastructure and development projects that we could not have achieved in normal times and in a context of absence of pressure.
