His Excellency President Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of the friendly Indonesia;
His Excellency the Secretary General of the Organization Islamic Conference;
Your Highnesses and Excellencies;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
It is my pleasure to participate to the fifth session of the World Economic Islamic Forum in the peaceful city of Jakarta. The peaceful town of Jakarta is one of the modernist cities distinguished with its history and cultural richness.
At the beginning I would like to express my greeting and appreciation to Your Highnesses and Excellencies, the representatives of States and countries of our Islamic nation.
My special thanks and gratitude go to His Excellency President Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, President of the Republic of Indonesia, to the Government of his country and the hospitable people of Indonesia for this generous initiative to embrace the fifth session of the World Economic Islamic Forum.
We acknowledge the great efforts that have been taken to achieve the success of this event which aims to develop economic cooperation in order to make the Islamic nation a full and effective participant in the global economy.
I am taking this opportunity to witness the progress and prosperity achieved by the Republic of Indonesia at all levels under your wise leadership. I would also like to underline the depth and the strength of the fraternal relationship linking the Kingdom of Morocco and the Republic of Indonesia.
Our two countries and people share choices and values of democracy, openness, dialogue and tolerance, upholding by Islam.
His Excellency the President,
Your Highnesses and Excellencies;
We should all congratulate ourselves for organizing this forum at the highest level, in light of this circumstances under which our Islamic nation and people are facing growing challenges, consequences of the global economic and financial crisis.
Our meeting today is to demonstrate the seriousness of the challenges we face together and our strong wiliness to work hand in hand to reduce the effects of the crisis. Particular regard must be given to poverty, food and energy security beside the human development and other priorities to be addressed during this forum.
Certainly the purpose of this meeting is first to set the diagnosis of the current economic and social conjuncture and analyze the “causes and effects” of the crisis. The crisis is here knocking on our doors and its effects are clear on our economies: recession and unemployment.
We are gathered here today with the awareness that it is our responsibility to provide concrete, constructive and supportive solutions to mitigate the crisis impact.
We have to think a coordinated, effective and responsive strategy to overcome this difficult situation and energize the global economy with a specific attention to sustainable management of natural resources, social equity and solidarity promotion in our society, driven by Islam principles. All this has to be achieved with an emphasis on the importance of democracy and respect for human rights.
The time has come to set a new social and ecological deal designed to give a strong impetus to the global economy through a focus on sustainable development, and human development.
Till now the prerequisites for creating institutions and organs able to contain the risks of globalization within the Islamic nation are not verified. However, the current session is an opportunity to think the creation of a multifunctional organization dealing with market regulation, trade liberalization and environment protection.
We should strongly keep in mind that we are all dealing with more and more complex challenges. Individual work is not the appropriate solution to cope with this kind of issues. The Muslim world is more than ever requesting of federated, integrated and collegial actions since our countries are full of capacities, potentialities and expertise to set development models.
Besides, we are linked with a fraternal relationship and human consciousness that can lead our Islamic Nation to achieve economic, social and human prosperity.
We believe that ideas exchange, coordinated efforts, mutual assistance and support, strongly recommended by our islamic values, are the road to a safe and a prosperous future for our Ummah.
His Excellency the President;
Your Highnesses and Excellencies;
In this perspective, allow me to shed light on our experience related to sustainable and human development that represent a very important aspect of the economic and social reforms undertaken by the Moroccan government.
We have maintained the dynamic of the Moroccan economy, and the pace of growth, despite the global economic crisis, as a result of our strategic choices, under the wise leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
His policy based on the support of endogenous growth through, (i) the diversification of wealth sources, (ii) the
enhancement of the purchasing power, (iii) the fight against poverty enabled Morocco to withstand the global crisis and strengthen his position among the emerging economies.
Thus, under this international difficult conjuncture, and with God’s help, we succeeded in achieving positive performances at several levels in 2008:
* GDP growth reached 6%;
* Inflation has been controlled to 3.9%;
* Unemployment decreased to reach 9.6% in 2008;
* Reduction in the poverty has rated to 9% in 2007 against 14.2% at the end of 2004.
* The reinforcement of the non agricultural industries ‘ (telecommunications, construction, public work, tourism…) in the gross domestic product;
* The openness on new economic areas and the targeting of strategic sectorial reforms in sensitive fields like agriculture, water and energy.
Besides, we believe that achieving strong and sustainable growth inside a frame respecting environment protection and its preservation for future generations is the right way to settle a balanced and safe development.
His Excellency the President;
Your Highnesses and Excellencies;
Global warming is a real source of concern at the global level. This phenomenon calls for urgent measures to confront the threats toward humanity and its civilization.
In this regard, all scientists agree that greenhouse gases causing temperatures to rise have increased by an average of 30% since the industrial Revolution. This phenomenon is the reason behind floods, droughts and ocean levels rising beside the growing extinction of animal and plant species.
Face to this ecological challenge, we call the whole world to give a new impetus to the global economy in accordance with sustainable development principles, taking into account adequate means to counter global warming.
We are invited to deepen our debate on this subject, and to develop a common ground in the horizon to prepare for a new global agreement on climate change at the “Copenhagen” summit to be held by the end of 2009.
We are required to introduce the environmental dimension in public investments such transportation, construction, public works and agriculture. We are also required to improve energy efficiency with a particular attention to renewable energies involving educational and training institutions in the development to sensitize and raise the ecological awareness.
In this ecological perceptive, Morocco, under the guidance of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, has undertaken two strategies that complete each others: one designed for energy and the other aiming environment protection. These actions are a part of more comprehensive reforms that cover strategic areas in our country
Concerning environment, the strategy adopted aimed to develop mechanisms and procedures to ensure the preservation of natural resources, and reduce the pollution factors in all its forms, providing the necessary conditions for a clean and balanced development.
This approach emphasizes several important themes:
* First : the establishment of a voluntary policy with specific measures to manage water as valuable resource. This policy aims to preserve the quality of resources, the ecological environment of water, treatment and recycling of water beside the prevention against underground water pollution;
* Second : the ecological rehabilitation of industrial zones and ‘ units of production through the promotion of advanced technologies with added value in terms of profitability,
environmental protection and energy saving;
* Third : the rationalization of transportation systems, particularly within the urban areas, and improvement of vehicle circulation, plus the encouragement of usage of public transportation having less pollution effect on the environment;
* Fourth: the development of a national strategy in dealing with household, medical and industrial waste;
* Fifth: the strengthening of reforestation programs and rehabilitation of protected natural areas and parks.
As the energy sector is considered as a central pillar in our environmental policy; in this regard, a number of major actions have been undertaken:
We are developing renewable energy production, mainly hydropower and wind-power. Our objective is to supply 4% to 10% of our capacity by 2012. We aim also to develop solar and photovoltaic energy to provide electricity for isolated villages in rural areas. In this context, we have established a fund with $ 1 billion for the development of renewable energy for which Morocco has great potential; We are working to adopt clean technologies through refineries upgrading program according to the international standards, seeking to improve petrol and diesel quality.
We are in the process of improving energy efficiency and optimizing our energy consumption through the following measures:
- Reducing electricity consumption by the implementation of incentives to reduce consumption by 20% and the distribution of 22 million low-consumption lamps; ? Activation of the National Program for the energy efficiency through systematization of energy audit operations in construction, industry and transport. The objective is to save 15% of the total consumption by 2020;
- Control of the consumption of petroleum products through the replacement of petroleum by other energy alternatives in the industrial sector and improving the efficiency of fuel used in the transportation sector.
His Excellency the President;
Your Highnesses and Excellencies;
As you know, the economic and financial crisis overshadowed with its negative social conditions on millions of individuals and families from different parts of the world. A decrease in the level of living, a worsening of unemployment, especially among young people, and the difficulty to ensure food and energy security are symptoms of this difficult conjuncture.
Millions of workers have been fired as a result of bankruptcies. Poverty spread out to reach 75 million other people. The risk of hunger and social tensions has been exacerbated within the poorest areas in more than 35 countries.
So, the way to ovoid that the current economic and financial crisis turns into a social disaster, is to work hard to conceive a new social contract. A contract, that aims to strengthen social solidarity and reinvest the benefit of our growth into services to enhance social and human development.
Under this social project which places the citizen at the heart of the development process, the Moroccan experience related to National Initiative for Human Development, which started since 2005, under the auspices of His Majesty King Mohammed VI; aimed intensively to take care of disadvantaged groups, promote income-generating activities, and fight poverty and vulnerability, thereby enabling social improvement for underserved people.
This royal program is based on integrated and participative governance in managing development projects with the contribution of citizens, local officials, private sector as well as nongovernmental organizations.
In parallel with this program, we have worked to protect the purchasing power, to control inflation, to improve incomes, and to strengthen social protection.
Faced with the volatility of food and oil prices and the stress related to its supply especially in 2008, we undertook a battery of urgent and structural measures to absorb the negative effects. The Moroccan Government worked to:
- Control and master inflation at reasonable level compared to other developing and emerging countries;
- Continue to subsidize consumption prices through compensation mechanisms;
- Energize employment through the empowerment of investment and an accelerated implementation of big structuring projects beside the infrastructure and capacity building in terms of skills needed in the work market;
- Improving salaries in both public and private sectors in the frame of the social dialogue with social and economic partners;
- Encouraging income generating activities inside the frame of “social economy” giving priority to activities with added value in agriculture, handcraft and rural tourism industries.
In a synergy with this vision, Morocco continues to implement a strategy regarding social housing in harmony with the level of living of targeted populations. We have provided a housing formula adapted the middle class and rural area beside low cost housing in the benefit of vulnerable and limited income people.
His Excellency the President;
Your Highnesses and Excellencies;
We hope this meeting will give birth to operational solutions able to develop a complementary between Countries members of the Islamic Conference in economical, social areas to make true our our people expectations for the present and for the future regarding the a safe environment and respectable living.
At the end, I want underline that Morocco, according to the guidelines of our Sovereign, His Majesty King Mohammed VI. is committed toward our brothers in the Islamic World to unify our visions and positions, to deepen ways of economic and social cooperation and widening the area of social and economic partnership .