The city of Khouribga hosted, last Wednesday, a scientific event organised by Hassan 1st University and the Polydisciplinary Faculty of Khouribga, in partnership with the Order of Chartered Accountants (Casablanca, Centre, Tensift and South regions) and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Khouribga.

Organised on the theme "The informal sector in Morocco: gangrene or windfall?", this colloquium saw the participation of heads of university departments and concerned public and private establishments.

The various interventions made it possible to define the links of inclusion or exclusion that the informal and formal sectors maintain. It was also a question of considering, in certain cases, the informal as an obstacle to growth and development, while it turns out to be, in several countries, a complete economic activity. This, in particular, through its structures absorbing employment problems.

The participatory approach in the integration of street vendors was also mentioned, based on a study that involved 1,700 street vendors in Khouribga. The speakers also raised the experience of "Entreprendre Maroc" which allowed young entrepreneurs to benefit from loans and create their own businesses. The promising objective, it was specified, is to "create" employers capable of providing an answer to the problem of the informal sector.

The legal and fiscal stakes of the informal sector were also raised to provide explanations concerning the accounting of the informal, the marketing used in the latter, microcredits, financial aspects, etc.

This colloquium was marked by the signing of a partnership agreement between the Polydisciplinary Faculty of Khouribga and the Order of Chartered Accountants present during the day, offering advantages to both sides. The participants were even entitled to a videoconference intervention by Professor Juan Elias Chebly of the United Nations, a specialist in developing countries, who insisted on training as a means of fighting poverty upstream.