The Minister of Housing, Urban Planning and Urban Policy, Nabil Benabdellah, recently presided over the proceedings of the board of directors session of the Urban Agency of Khémisset, in the presence of the provincial governor, Hassan Fatih, and the president of the Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaers region, Bouamer Taghouane. During this session, the Minister immediately indicated that the new role assigned to Urban Agencies requires human, material and logistical resources that the State is working to make available to them. Mr. Benabdallah highlighted the important role of Urban Agencies in the management of urban and rural space and in the architectural organisation of these spaces, through corrective interventions in terms of planning and prevention. The Minister of Housing also noted that the evaluation of the Urban Agencies' action reports shows that the corrective approach, which focuses on the restructuring of neighbourhoods and the fight against shanty towns and substandard housing, remains the most important.
It is manifested through the construction of new towns and the opening of new urbanisation zones. Mr. Benabdallah highlighted the institutional framework of the housing sector, recalling the laws in force such as the Dahir of 10 September 1996. He insisted on environmental planning and on construction licences and orders, as well as on occupancy permits, all within a global concept respecting the municipal charter. Before closing his speech, the Minister reminded the Urban Agency of the need to align itself with the new logic of intervention advocated by the supervisory department, namely its positioning as a development actor remaining permanently attentive to and at the service of all environmental sensitivities.
The ministerial official finally urged the Urban Agency to redouble its vigilance in the fight against substandard housing and to help citizens wishing to have a healthy living environment and to act against irregular constructions that distort the urban landscape as a whole. For his part, the provincial governor, Hassan Fatih, declared that the creation of the Urban Agency came at the right time to contribute to supporting the urban development of the city of Khémisset. He also stressed the important role played by Urban Agencies in the implementation of the guidelines of the supervisory ministry, which place increased interest on issues related to territorial development and require a global approach for the management of urban and rural spaces.
Mr. Fatih also insisted on the need to equip the Urban Agency with appropriate instruments for a rational management of urban space within the framework of a new mode of governance allowing for better use of resources and the emergence of initiatives based on new contractual partnership processes.
The governor finally invited the Urban Agency to adopt a proximity policy via listening and the implementation of programmes, according to a vision of global balance between spaces, both at the scale of the province and that of the region as a whole, in order to ensure the emergence of suitable conditions for sustainable territorial development.
The balance sheet of the commission meetings in 2011 under the leadership of the Urban Agency, held within the framework of one-stop shops, shows 1,551 projects examined, of which 1,136 received a favourable opinion, representing 73.24%, while 415 projects received an unfavourable opinion, i.e. 26.75%. During the same year, and within the framework of the procedure reserved for the study of major projects, some 497 projects were processed, of which 269 received a favourable opinion.
It should be recalled that during the last session of the Urban Agency, the moral and financial reports for the 2011 financial year were approved, as well as the recommendations proposed by the Agency within the framework of its general operating guidelines.
