Morocco has signed a $350 million financing agreement with the World Bank to support the reform of public institutions and enterprises (EEP).
The agreement was signed in Rabat on Thursday by Nadia Fettah, Morocco’s Minister of Economy and Finance, and Jesko Hentschel, Director of the World Bank’s Maghreb and Malta Department.
At the signing ceremony, Ms. Fettah underlined the importance of this agreement, stressing that it strengthens the cooperation between Morocco and the World Bank. This financing is intended to support the process of reforming the EEP in accordance with the royal directives.
This reform is governed by Framework Law No. 50-21 on the reform of public enterprises (EEP) and Law No. 82-20 on the creation of the National Agency for the Strategic Management of Public Enterprises and the Monitoring of the Performance of EEP (ANGSPE), according to a press release from the Moroccan Ministry of Economy and Finance.
The agreement follows the approval by the Council of Ministers, chaired by King Mohammed VI, on June 1, 2024, of the strategic orientations of the state’s shareholding policy. This policy is one of the pillars of the reform of the EEP sector, which aims to restructure and improve the performance and management of the public portfolio, while encouraging private sector participation in investments.
The program supported by this World Bank financing is ambitious. It aims to strengthen the state’s shareholding functions and the governance framework of PEEs, resize the public portfolio and promote competitive neutrality, and improve the monitoring of PEE performance, including climate impacts.
The program will be implemented over five years by ANGSPE and the Directorate of Public Enterprises and Privatization (DEPP), in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders.
The ceremony was also attended by the president of the Conseil de la Concurrence, the Managing Director of ANGSPE, the Director of Public Enterprises and Privatization, and senior officials from the Ministry of Economy and Finance.
MN/ac/lb/as/APA