The Souss-Massa region is full of important assets allowing it to have a contribution to the national GDP higher than the 7.7% it currently achieves, indicated, Friday in Agadir, the president of the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM), Miriem Bensalah Chaqroun.
"The region deserves and can do, I am convinced, much more", stressed Ms. Bensalah Chaqroun, who was speaking during a meeting with economic operators in the region, noting that Souss-Massa is the second region of Morocco in terms of wealth creation and has a solid and diversified economy (tourism, fishing, agriculture and industry). In the agri-food sector, 44% of Morocco's fruit and vegetable exports and 50% of the Kingdom's fisheries production come from this region, which is also the second tourist destination in the country not only because of its seaside assets, but also its attractive hinterland, indicated Ms. Bensalah Chaqroun.
The president of the CGEM, however, reported problems that hinder the economic development of the region such as air connectivity which penalises the under-employed tourist potential of Souss-Massa or the problem of qualified human resources and the lack of territorial marketing. "At a time when we are talking about advanced regionalisation, there is no Souss-Massa brand, nor an Agadir, Taroudant or Tiznit brand", she lamented. She also mentioned the problem of access to serviced industrial land, in addition to the acute crisis of payment delays from which the construction sector suffers. For his part, Yassine Rahmouni, member of the CGEM group in the House of Councillors, stressed the importance of pooling efforts and grouping around problems capable of uniting entrepreneurs, stopping on certain difficulties faced by companies in the region. The CGEM has set up a regional dynamics commission which is broken down into five axes, consisting of harmonising regional networking, promoting the attractiveness and territorial marketing of the regions, encouraging institutional relations and public-private partnership and ensuring intellectual production in the regions and coordination based on good governance. These axes of work are engaged in the "Regional Smart Plans", a roadmap of actions to be carried out with a view to breathing new dynamics into regional development.
