Akhannouch: “The government is adopting an innovative vision of urban planning”

Hibapress

The government is adopting an innovative vision of urban planning capable of optimizing planning approaches and improving the living environment and sustainable management of the land base in order to guarantee the social and functional complementarity of territorial spaces, affirmed, Monday in Rabat, the head of government, Aziz Akhannouch.

“This vision with strategic dimensions comes from the government’s deep conviction and its commitment to building real territorial development poles,” said Mr. Akhannouch, who gave a presentation during the plenary session devoted to the responses of the head of government to questions relating to general policy in the House of Representatives on “urban planning and housing policy and its impact on economic dynamics and social and spatial development.”

In this sense, he noted that the development of these poles as levers of human development and social promotion, and as the State’s main partners, is dependent on the establishment of a prospective and global vision in terms of national land use planning and support for integrated development projects in the rural world, in addition to the emergence of a new generation of urban documents promoting renewed urban management.

It is also, he continued, about supporting national needs in the field of housing by strengthening housing programs and remedying the imbalances raised in terms of unsanitary housing, in addition to a judicious implementation of the direct housing assistance program, in accordance with the High Royal Guidelines, without omitting the measures taken for the reconstruction of the areas affected by the Al Haouz earthquake as an “exceptional emergency requiring an exceptional mobilization of all the sectors concerned behind King Mohammed VI.”

Mr. Akhannouch also noted that the government launched the National Dialogue on Urban Planning and Housing in September 2022, with a view to laying the foundations for a unified and participatory approach, in accordance with the clear-sighted vision of HM the King, with the involvement of various stakeholders and partners, the objective being to meet the challenges and explore new avenues in terms of spatial and urban planning, in order to establish residential spaces as appropriate platforms for sectoral convergence and public interventions, and a catalyst for wealth creation and resource sustainability.

He also noted that the consultative meetings at the regional level were an important opportunity to exchange views, open the debate on the future of urban planning in Morocco, and make urban planning and housing real spaces to address the social and economic challenge in a national and international context marked by profound changes in both urban and rural areas.

The results of the regional meetings on urban planning and housing highlighted, he said, the need to update the regional planning system by revising the legal framework governing the procedure for developing and approving urban documents, in addition to strengthening the mechanisms for simplifying procedures relating to the examination and issuance of various building permits, and the establishment of a regional contact to provide support for the advanced regionalization project and the implementation of the new investment charter.

Mr. Akhannouch noted that the executive initiated the reform of this strategic sector within the framework of a global system of public policy reform, dictated by the national contexts linked to the mobilization of all necessary means capable of guaranteeing the support of the demographic transformations that the Kingdom has experienced in recent years, by moving forward to initiate “a break” capable of filling the gaps and remedying the dysfunctions that have marred this sector, while assuming full political responsibility for bringing about the expected change in this area.

While stressing the importance given by the government to issues of urban planning and housing, and to their multiple dimensions within the framework of national and spatial development processes, he noted that the executive is fully “aware of the challenges of the transition towards sustainable territorial spaces and cities that make it possible to seize the available social and economic opportunities.”