Le Maroc Competitif:
A Cluster Development Initiative
in Morocco

Morocco’s leaders launched a major initiative in 1995 to involve the private sector in the formulation of a strategic development plan for the country. This initiative, popularly known as Le Maroc Competitif, was undertaken in close cooperation with the World Bank, and with financing from the European Union. Its origins are rooted in the dynamics of globalization and trade integration which are shaping Morocco’s future.

Since last year, Morocco signed an association agreement with the European Union which aims at creating a free trade zone between the two entities, and thus became part of the global economic game. Prior to this agreement, Morocco had launched a macroeconomic adjustment plan which liberalized and stabilized the economy. Once stabilization was achieved, a realization set in that the country’s growth was below potential — that is, below what it could be in terms of income generation and job creation — the real goals of the plan.

The principle vehicle of this initiative has been the Private Sector Development Committee, which was set up in June 1994. Its mission is to determine the optimal economic environment which would enable the private sector to play the key role in fostering growth, with the state focusing on maintaining macroeconomic stability and investing in social sectors — health, housing, education. The underlying principle is that private firms become competitive, not governments.

With the benefit of other countries’ lessons, the Private Sector Development Committee adopted a new dynamic approach based on those lessons and on a collaborative, cluster-based concept. The cluster concept is based on the existence of groups of industries with inter-linkages, which was missing in Morocco. It is also an action-oriented effort which aims at mobilizing economic actors through a collaborative approach that includes the government as well as the private sector.

The dynamic cluster effect is simple. When absent, the consequences are serious. In Morocco, for instance, the sectors with strong comparative advantage — such as tourism and fisheries — were not succeeding precisely because they were not working in clusters, as the interrelationship between customers and suppliers, the government and the private sector, and all other elements involved were not functioning well. Awareness of these deficiencies was needed to correct them so that the dynamic behavior of everyone involved would change. The cluster concept promotes infrastructures which in turn creates virtuous cycles of growth and development and attracts foreign investors, quality human resources and new technologies. It also makes possible alliances between different levels of clusters — such as government and private sector — between firms from different clusters and within the same clusters — such as companies and their suppliers. All this results in an integrated dynamic which promotes competitiveness.

The cluster approach can be illustrated as a pyramid with three levels. At the top of the pyramid are industries which provide products and services for exports. These industries are supported by a second level or supplier industries which must also be competitive to enable export industries to be competitive themselves. These two levels rest on a third or base level which consists of basic economic infrastructure, that is, physical infrastructure, capital, human resources, technology, and the regulatory, finance and legal environment.

Le Maroc Competitif is organized in three phases in which concrete action plans are implemented that define a new path for Morocco’s development. Following an analysis of the country’s economy, the first phase consisted of the selection of four pilot clusters with wide impact on the economy — textiles and apparel, sea products, tourism, and electronic and information technology — which were then assessed for competitiveness. In the second phase, these clusters’ economic actors were mobilized by constituting a working group for each cluster which included all the members — horizontally and vertically — of both their specific industries and their infrastructure, with the state’s role limited to that of a process facilitator. Each group then worked on a diagnosis of the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of its own sector, with a bottom-up approach, and formulated a vision — a shared vision within their cluster. This vision was translated into a strategic plan which consisted of five concrete directions: a) sharpen the focus on markets opportunities; b) improve quality; c) achieve the appropriate cluster structure; d) build more specialized and responsive economic foundations; and e) establish mechanisms for nationwide public-private collaboration.

In the third phase, once the action plan was defined, the clusters must move to concrete initiatives which would enable the plan to be enacted. To date, a total of 250 initiatives — forty of which are under implementation — have been identified for the four clusters. Each initiative is headed by a "champion," who is responsible for its implementation. This is very important to ensure that all the parties involved are committed to undertaking the behavioral changes required. Some of the initiatives are cross-cutting and aim to foster improvements in the competitiveness of all clusters, whereas others are more specifically targeted at one cluster. Some of the pilot cluster specific initiatives are:

Textile Observatory is an independent non-profit organization whose mission is to provide consolidated information to companies by connecting with various existing networks and databases — such as the Internet — and worldwide textile observatories and industry associations. In addition, it offers potential contractors information on the capabilities of Moroccan companies, including key areas of specialization, production capacity, etc.;

Textile Service Center will be created to provide support services to the companies in the textile and apparel cluster;

A Regional Organization for the Sea Products Cluster will regulate the supply of fishing through quotas, increase cold-storage capacities, establish pricing guidelines, and increase coordination between the "ship owners" and the seafood processors; and

Team Maroc Tourisme is an organization open to all private operators from all parts of the tourism cluster. It includes hotels, travel agents, Royal Air Maroc, representatives of the public sector and many others, and aims at defining concerted initiatives to promote Moroccan tourism abroad.

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