The kingdom of Morocco is considered as a developing country, this can be explained by the various social and economic challenges that our country faced and that definitely led to many pressures that have affected the country’s development. This won’t really deny the fact that Morocco has progressed during the last few years by adopting new reforms that helped and will certainly help in the future as well to make Morocco one of the best and progressed countries. This shows that Morocco has both strengths that improve its economy as well as weaknesses that affect it negatively.
The Moroccan economy same as other economies in the whole world has strengths. The first one that needs to be discussed is the tourism industry. Because of the good and strategic geographical position that Morocco occupies, the tourism industry plays an important role in the Moroccan economy. Morocco gives a huge importance to tourism because of the income that brings to the country and also the way it helps to develop the national economy. The Ministry of Tourism declared that:
“In 2018, Morocco received 8.7 million tourists from January to August (…) Morocco earned $4.88 billion in tourism revenue in the period, compared to $4.82 billion during the same period in 2017”[footnoteRef:1] [1: ‘8.7 Million Tourists Visit Morocco in First 8 Months of 2018”, Morocco World News, October 26, 2018, https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/10/256159/tourists-morocco-marrakech-casablanca-agadir/.]
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The profit gained from the tourism can help in developing more the sector and attracting many other tourists to admire our beautiful country. The profit also will help in progressing other sectors in Morocco so that they can be added to the tourism industry as strengths of the Moroccan economy.
It is also important to know that developing tourism will help boosting one of the main industries in our country which is the “craft industry”. Using normal and basic materials such as the leather, wood, ceramic and wool to create beautiful decorations or also traditional clothes that no one in the whole world will be able to produce. These things will definitely bring the attention of different international customers or tourists.
The second important strength in the Moroccan economy is the infrastructure. Since independence, the Moroccan infrastructure was much more developed and since Morocco relies a lot on exports and also on tourism, it is important to have a good infrastructure to make these sectors progress more. By infrastructure we mean: roads, railways airports and ports. We can explain more by showing : First, roads in Morocco that are considered as “one of the best road systems on the continent”[footnoteRef:2]. Over the last years, the government helped in constructing “1100 miles of modern roads, connecting most major cities via tolled expressways”[footnoteRef:3]. And second, we have railways that are really important to transport both people and also goods: “Morocco’s railway network includes 800 miles of track, with 120 stations serving passengers as well as freight”[footnoteRef:4]. It is also important to mention that during last few months, the high speed rail line between Casablanca and Tangier started and it is also “Africa’s first high-speed train”[footnoteRef:5] [2: ‘Morocco – Infrastructure Morocco – Infrastructure, Korea – Distribution and Sales Morocco Den Channels, https://www.export.gov/article?id=Morocco-Infrastructure] [3: Ibid.,] [4: Ibid.,] [5: ‘Morocco Gets Africa’s First High-speed Train,’ CNN, November 16, 2018, https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/morocco-high-speed-tgv-trains/index.html.]
“The Tangiers-Casablanca route is expected to generate a sharp increase in passenger numbers that will boost tourism, support wider economic growth in the cities, and recoup the investment on it.”[footnoteRef:6] [6: Ibid.,]
The third strength that exists in the Moroccan economy is the “phosphate reserve”:
Morocco produced 14% of the world’s output of phosphate rock (making it the world’s 3rd ranking producer), 8% of the world’s output of barite, 3% of the world’s output of cobalt, and 1% of the world’s output of fluorspar[footnoteRef:7] [7: ‘Morocco,’ Redstone Exploration Services, http://redstone-exploration.com/country-profiles/morocco/.]
The mining is an important source to maintain power in the economic scene and also to play strong with the other countries. The phosphate reserve or mining helps also in providing labor and ways of gaining money to the local community in addition to progressing the economic growth of the country.
Having strengths does not really mean being flawless. Each country had weaknesses that surely affect its development and progress. The Moroccan economy suffered from many and we can cite:
First, Drought, in the last years the lack of rainfall resulted in many negative results that has affected our society and individuals especially farmers that rely only on the land and the goods it produces.
“Agriculture contributes around 15 percent of Morocco’s GDP but is highly variable from year-to-year. The agriculture, fishing, and forestry sector employs about 45 percent of the total workforce, with a similar proportion of the population living in rural areas”[footnoteRef:8] [8: ‘Morocco – Infrastructure Morocco – Infrastructure, Korea – Distribution and Sales Morocco Den Channels, https://www.export.gov/article?id=Morocco-Infrastructure]
Since the Agriculture plays a huge role in evolving the economic growth of the country, the drought will absolutely slow down the growth because the agriculture in Morocco relies the most on the rainfall because of the lack of new technologies that will help the farmers produce more goods and benefit more from what they are good at: “Moroccan agriculture remains mostly traditional with limited applications of production inputs such as fertilizers, pesticides and mechanization”[footnoteRef:9] [9: Ibid.,]
The second weakness that Morocco suffers from is the issue of security and safety. Many problems happened lately in our country that frightened civilians as well as the tourists:
“Two foreign nationals were murdered while hiking near Mount Toubkal in December 2018. Moroccan authorities arrested 4 individuals in connection with the murders, including 1 they say had links to “an extremist group””[footnoteRef:10] [10: Commonwealth Office. 2018. “Safety and Security – Morocco Travel Advice.” GOV.UK. December 21, 2018. https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/morocco/safety-and-security.]
These tourists were killed savagely and this is not the proper way to welcome the guests that are really happy to discover more about our country. Events like these will surely affect the tourism industry which is considered as one of the factor of increasing the economic growth in Morocco. Tourist won’t feel safe anymore to do what they want so they will differently choose to spend their vacation in other countries. Once the tourism is affected, this will also affect the large number of individuals that are working in this domain to gain money and save their lives.
The third and last weakness is the balance of payment, this can be seen from the huge difference between the amount of money reserved for importing good and the one gained from exporting goods:
“In 2016 Morocco exported $27.5B, making it the 60th largest exporter in the world … In 2016 Morocco imported $41.5B, making it the 52nd largest importer in the world”[footnoteRef:11] [11: ‘Morocco,’ OEC – Brazil (BRA) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners, https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/mar/.]
Another weakness related to this is as well is the trade partners. Morocco has strong relationships with Europe but not with other countries both in importing and exporting goods. This is not good since it is important for countries to maintain good relations with various sides so that this will help more in the development and progress of the country.
“The top export destinations of Morocco are Spain ($6.16B), France ($4.72B), Turkey ($1.11B), Germany ($1.03B) and the United States ($1.02B) … The top import origins of Morocco are Spain ($6.76B), France ($5.18B), China ($3.77B), the United States ($2.55B) and Germany ($2.4B)”[footnoteRef:12]. [12: Ibid.,]
Morocco is a developing country that is in its way to see the light of improvement and development, even though it has different weaknesses that enable it from growing economically, it still tries to figure out solutions to solve these problems such as the scenarios that are suggested to be done in the future in order to have more strengths, an example can be given by:
The 2020 Vision, presented on November 30 in Marrakech by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, that has a goal doubling the size of the tourism sector, hoisting and making Morocco among top 20 touristic destinations in the world (…) This vision will take care of each part in Morocco and will definitely work to protect environment and have the sustainable development as a major focus. This will also include the preservation of natural resources, the maintenance of socio-cultural authenticity of the regions and the development and well-being of local people”[footnoteRef:13] [13: ‘Tourism,’ Maroc.ma, August 07, 2018, http://www.maroc.ma/en/content/tourism.]
That is why it is always important to keep in mind that weaknesses can sometimes be used as a starting point to a new strength.
Bibliography
- ‘8.7 Million Tourists Visit Morocco in First 8 Months of 2018.’ Morocco World News. October 26, 2018. https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2018/10/256159/tourists-morocco-marrakech-casablanca-agadir/.
- Commonwealth Office. 2018. “Safety and Security – Morocco Travel Advice.” GOV.UK. GOV.UK. December 21, 2018. https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/morocco/safety-and-security.
- ‘Morocco Gets Africa’s First High-speed Train.’ CNN. November 16, 2018. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/morocco-high-speed-tgv-trains/index.html
- ‘Morocco – InfrastructureMorocco – Infrastructure.’ Korea – Distribution and Sales Channels. https://www.export.gov/article?id=Morocco-Infrastructure.
- ‘Morocco.’ OEC – Brazil (BRA) Exports, Imports, and Trade Partners. https://atlas.media.mit.edu/en/profile/country/mar/.
- ‘Morocco.’ Redstone Exploration Services. http://redstone-exploration.com/country-profiles/morocco/.
- ‘Tourism.’ Maroc.ma. August 07, 2018. http://www.maroc.ma/en/content/tourism.
