Speakers at a workshop discussing the "challenges of activating regional competencies to promote territorial attractiveness" reviewed local experiences in implementing the advanced regionalisation project, developing territorial areas, enhancing their attractiveness and sustainability, as well as the challenges that regions must overcome in response to the aspirations of various national actors and international partners.
In this regard, the President of the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab Regional Council, Yanja El Khattat, reviewed the regional experience in implementing the development model for the southern provinces, noting that the Regional Council has worked to ensure the latter plays its role as a primary engine for local development, a partner to the State, and an actor within the local and regional environment.
Mr. Yanja emphasised that the development model for the southern provinces has given a special impetus to advanced regionalisation since its launch, and contributed to reorganising the region to fully assume its assigned roles by providing qualified human capital to boost local development, adding that this model has also enhanced the territorial attractiveness of the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab region.
He highlighted that the Dakhla region has today become a competitive economic hub, not only as a lever for the national and regional economy, but also through its role in strengthening integration and economic cooperation with Sahel countries and other African nations.
For his part, the Secretary-General of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, Younes Benakki, affirmed that the development model for the southern provinces carried a strategic vision aimed at achieving comprehensive and sustainable development, adding that this vision was translated into practical and concrete projects focusing on integrated dimensions.
In this context, he pointed out that this model gave special attention to the human dimension, making the citizen the starting point for all development programmes. It also focused on the integrated dimension by adopting a holistic perspective that links economic, social, and environmental aspects.
Mr. Benakki added that this comprehensive development model laid the foundations for integrated development that would enhance the attractiveness and territorial competitiveness of the Kingdom's southern provinces, becoming a model to be emulated in achieving balanced and sustainable development.
For his part, the President of the Marrakech-Safi Regional Council, Samir Goudar, reviewed the regional strategy, starting with the Regional Land Use Plan, the Regional Development Programme, the Regional Master Plan for Industrial Waste Management, the Master Plan for Mountainous Area Development, in addition to the Regional Employment Strategy and the Regional Mobility and Transport Plan.
Regarding the enhancement of investment attractiveness in the region, Goudar highlighted a series of initiatives aimed at supporting economic and entrepreneurial activities, such as the Tamansourt Industrial Hub project, which seeks to develop 40 hectares of economic land, increase investment and value-added in the region, and create hundreds of job opportunities at the level of the Marrakech prefecture, as well as the Khat Azakane industrial zone in the Safi province, which aims to develop the industrial ecosystem in the region.
He also reviewed a group of projects and partnership agreements between the region and the supervising ministry, including the dualisation of a number of national roads connecting the city of Marrakech to other cities within or outside the region, noting that the value of projects funded by the region reached 1.6 billion dirhams, out of a total of 3 billion dirhams.
This event, organised under the High Patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, under the theme "Advanced Regionalisation: Between Today's and Tomorrow's Challenges," constitutes an important moment in the implementation of the advanced regionalisation project, as a structural reform and a strategic choice to strengthen the path of territorial development, in light of the High Royal Directives.
Participants in this two-day meeting, held on the initiative of the Ministry of the Interior and in partnership with the Association of Regions of Morocco, will highlight successful initiatives and structural projects completed in various regions, with the aim of encouraging the exchange of expertise and reflecting on innovative and appropriate solutions to territorial challenges.
