HIBAPRESS – MAP
The President of the Council of the Guelmim-Oued Noun region and the President of the Association of Regions of Morocco, Moubaraka Bouaida, confirmed on Tuesday in Rabat that Morocco has numerous opportunities in the field of maritime clusters, especially by strengthening its role as a pivotal hub between Africa and Europe, attracting more flows, and playing a key role in logistical security.
Bouaida said, in a speech during the opening of a seminar on the topic "The Role of Regions in Developing Maritime Clusters," that this meeting aims to build a thought process on the role of these clusters in serving advanced regionalization, as it is a founding and structural workshop for the Kingdom. She highlighted that the maritime issue is no longer approached from a purely sectoral angle, whether port or maritime, because it has become a major challenge for territorial development, economic competitiveness, resilience, innovation, sustainability, and strategic foresight in a complex geo-political context, where maritime clusters have become crucial to ensuring socio-economic security and stability. In this context, the President of the Association of Regions of Morocco mentioned that the Kingdom abounds in the blue economy, with great potential with 3,500 kilometers of coastline and 1.2 million square kilometers of maritime area, as well as great potential in logistics, port industry, fishing, aquaculture, renewable energy, coastal tourism and innovation. She stressed the need to structure and organize these potentials, and then integrate them within the framework of the territorial dynamics that the Kingdom is witnessing, noting that the role of the regions becomes crucial at this level. For his part, the Vice-President of the European Union Mission to Morocco, Daniel Duto, affirmed that this event is an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of the green partnership between the European Union and Morocco, signed in 2022, especially in its part related to the green and blue economy, which represents the strategic framework for bilateral cooperation. Regarding blue skills, Duto confirmed that Morocco supports the establishment of a new technical group dedicated to this topic within the framework of the "WestMed" initiative, which Tunisia will coordinate and will bring together national experts alongside relevant sectors to exchange best practices and prepare concrete projects and overcome shortcomings in the field of blue skills in the region. On the other hand, he pointed out that the blue economy represents, in the coastal areas of Morocco, about 60 percent of the gross domestic product and 50 percent of the jobs, which makes it a basic lever for the path of economic development in the Kingdom, noting in this regard, Morocco's strong commitment in this field at the national and international levels. For his part, the expert at the national pole "WestMED-Morocco" and director of "SDG ACT" in Morocco, Hassan Akouzoul, noted that the "WestMED" initiative considers this event a decisive turning point, highlighting that this meeting consecrates the territorial implementation of the blue economy and the emergence of regional maritime poles that are scheduled to become poles and cores for the new model of territorial development. He added that this dynamic aspires to reach a new stage in creating wealth and job opportunities, targeting young people and women as a priority, in full harmony with the orientations of the new development model of the Kingdom. This seminar, organized by the Association of Regions of Morocco in partnership with the "WestMed" initiative, aims to inform the concerned regions about the roles, challenges and opportunities of coastal maritime clusters in the emergence of the blue economy, and to launch a strategic dialogue on approaches that are in line with the Moroccan regional specificities, and to identify procedural recommendations for effectively integrating these clusters within the path of designing and implementing the national strategy for the blue economy, improving access to blue financing, as well as promoting local capacities for creating integrated projects. The "WestMED" initiative, launched on November 17, 2015, by the Union for the Mediterranean with the support of the European Commission, following the Ministerial Declaration of the Union for the Mediterranean on the blue economy, aims to contribute to building a safer maritime space, creating a smarter and more resilient blue economy, and improving maritime governance in the Western Mediterranean.
