WASHINGTON, August 27, 2018 – World Bank Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa, Ferid Belhaj will visit Morocco from August 27 to 29, 2018. This will be the first visit to the country in his new capacity as Regional Vice President, which Mr. Belhaj assumed on July 1 of this year. The three-day visit will include meetings with the Head of government, key ministers as well as national and local officials, private sector representatives and young men and women entrepreneurs. The aim of the visit is to reaffirm the World Bank Group’s commitment to Morocco, further strengthen the long-standing partnership with the country, and confirm priority areas of engagement under the upcoming Country Partnership Framework.
Discussions will focus on the need to invest in people, innovative technologies along with infrastructure, as the path to inclusive growth and to prepare Moroccans for the rapidly changing world of tomorrow. The World Bank will support Morocco, an early adopter of the Human Capital Project, as it prioritizes investments in early childhood development, improving the quality of education, and expanding access to healthcare and effective social protection programs. They will also emphasize the need to promote entrepreneurship particularly to create opportunities for the large cohorts joining the job market each year.
During the visit, the World Bank Vice President will witness the signing of an agreement between the Ministry of Interior and India’s International Institute of Information Technology for the use of their state-of-the-art digital identification software. The signing is the result of an active south-south collaboration between India and Morocco, facilitated by the World Bank’s Identification for Development (ID4D) Initiative, which will enable innovations to improve access to social programs, especially for the most vulnerable.
