Better understand and know the Moroccans of the World (MDM), strengthen the protection of rights, support and encourage the contribution of expatriate talents to the development of the Kingdom, co-build innovative links… The Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), pleaded, this Wednesday in Rabat, for the establishment of a renewed institutional architecture of policies and mechanisms dedicated to MDM.
During the press conference held this Wednesday, December 21 at the headquarters of the ESEC, the Council presented the conclusions of its opinion on the enhancement of the intergenerational link with Moroccans around the world. It should be noted that the opinion, which is in direct line with the royal speech of August 20, 2022, relates to the multidimensional content of the link between Moroccans of the World and Morocco, to the factors defining the particularity and depth , and on the ways and means to strengthen vitality and preserve its sustainability.
” It’s a job that took us two months. We used the classic participatory approach, we did a lot of hearing sessions and we listened to the MDMs, in Canada, Europe, the United States… We put a questionnaire on the web in 7 languages and we had more than 91,000 interactions, 5,000 responses from 53 countries and we can say that we know the subject well today“, said Ahmed Réda Chami, president of the EESC, in a statement to MoroccoLatestNews.
” We were pleasantly surprised to see that 93% of them defined the link with Morocco as strong and they asked for it to be further strengthened. And to dig a little deeper, we asked them to define the elements that make them proud of Morocco, they thus cited the royal institution or the monarchy in the person of His Majesty the King, they spoke to us about the rich and varied Moroccan culture and progress made in various areas, including infrastructure and women’s rights“, continues the president.
As for the problems encountered as well as the expectations of the MDMs, Réda Chami specifies that the answers were varied and were mainly based on the cultural side since the latter always find it difficult to teach Arabic to their children, also on the administrative and consular services. ” even though they have improved but still need more work to do ” and in particular on the difficulties of investing in Morocco and underlines in the sense that it is necessary to create a fund ” to welcome the contributions and thus which will make it possible to invest in the productive fields”.
” This is why we have made interesting proposals, including the institutional plan. Today, there are several players with skills that sometimes overlap, with the lack of coordination and a lot of means that are there, but which are perhaps not used and for this we say that need a Minister Delegate in charge of MDM at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is the one who establishes the strategy and who is responsible for its implementation.“, adds Réda Chami, indicating that we must also create a single portal “marocdumonde.ma” so that each MDM can find everything they need there.
In this regard, the Chairman of the Board recommended setting up the Hassan II Foundation for MREs as a strategic public establishment, which will represent the operator and the operational arm of the implementation of the MDM strategy, in consultation with the other actors and stakeholders, as well as the creation of branches of the strategic public institution within the Embassies of the Kingdom responsible for the deployment of the MDM strategy at the level of the host country.
Thus, Fouad Ben Seddik, member of the Council, Experts Category and who took care of the drafting of the opinion explained to MoroccoLatestNews that the report was organized in four parts, “ the first focused on improving, as much as possible, knowledge of the situation of MDMs, and above all on an exploration of their expectations and perceptions. We did this from an online questionnaire on the Ouchariko platform where we received quite a few responses, and from this point of view it is a technical success for the Council.“.
Thanks to the questionnaire, we were able to draw a number of conclusions. Moroccans are, and remain, wherever they are in the world, deeply attached to the sustainability of ties with their country of origin, but their aspirations are changing. They want renewed links even if the majority of them do not aspire to return to settle permanently in Morocco but aspire to regular links which can be economic or cultural.“, clarifies Ben Seddik.
The expert highlights the fact that there are Moroccans ” who succeed and we must encourage their contribution to the development of the country, there are also Moroccans who are in difficulty and who must be accompanied, protected and assisted“, noting that there exists” financial mechanisms which, today, are completely obsolete and very insufficient. You should know that the MDM contribute to 7.5% of the GDP and represent 15% of the population and it is possible to have a more sustainable contribution on the condition of improving these mechanisms“.