Morocco Second Competitiveness DPL

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The Second Economic Competitiveness Support Program Development Policy Loan for the Kingdom of Morocco is the second Development Policy Loan (DPL) in a programmatic series of two single-tranche DPLs. The program development objective of the Second Economic Competitiveness Support Program (ECSP II) is to support policy reforms in three key areas of the Government’s comprehensive economic strategy: (a) Improving the investment climate; (b) Furthering trade policy reform and trade facilitation; and (c) Strengthening economic governance. These key areas are referred to as pillars. Pillar 1 focuses on four key dimensions to improve Morocco’s business climate: Enhancing e-governance for regulatory and administrative simplification; Simplifying administrative procedures and improving transparency; Reducing the financial burden on SMEs resulting from excessive payment delays; and modernizing the legal framework for entry and governance of corporations under SA status. Pillar 2 involves infrastructure investments in roads and ports have increased significantly, customs procedures have been streamlined as well as ports procedures; an online trade platform has been implemented by the customs administration; services liberalization has been successfully implemented in the civil aviation area and to a lesser extent, in the commercial shipping sector and logistics. Pillar 3 focuses on three essential aspects of economic governance: (a) Assessing costs and benefits of incentives granted by the Commission for Investments, (b) Improving the public private coordination for business environment reforms, and (c) Strengthening the institutional framework for the competition.<BR>