2024-05-11 13:12:29
Speaking at the opening of the High-Level Ministerial Conference on Middle-Income Countries which is being held under the theme: “Solutions to address the development challenges of middle-income countries in a changing world”, the minister added that these countries are the “middle class of international society”, the one which supports the economy and benchmarks the level of development.
In this sense, he highlighted their place and their weight in the global economy, their assets and their demographic dynamism, as well as their diversity and their geographical and cultural representativeness, noting that they are also a systemic lever for the regional and international peace and stability.
“It is within Middle Income Countries that we observe some of the most beautiful economic and societal success stories, and the most inspiring experiences of progress and reforms, carried out in the face of adversity,” he said. chained, maintaining that these countries are a source of inspiration and motivation for the nations of the world, in this disrupted international context.
The minister, in this regard, noted that good health of the economies of Middle Income Countries is beneficial for the world economic order and even for the World Order itself, stressing, moreover, that these countries are faced with similar challenges including continued stagflation, the ever-increasing debt burden and access to international financing, which is becoming increasingly difficult, hampering progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals.
On the other hand, Mr. Bourita indicated that the gaps in development cooperation have widened, at the very time when Middle Income Countries need, more than ever, special attention, noting that a Sustained cooperation is necessary to strengthen investment in sustainable development and preserve the development dynamic that they have been able to establish.
He also affirmed that this conference is equipped to be a formidable lever for international action, economic first and foremost, for the benefit of all its members, individually and collectively, calling for awareness of the importance of these countries, and to measure the challenges they face.
According to him, Middle Income Countries must have the ambition to escape the “middle income trap”.
As such, political stability, economic progress and social prosperity are neither a monopoly nor a cartel, he said, specifying that they are nothing other than the universal capital of the League of Nations. , if it wants to be an international community without anyone left behind.
Middle Income Countries must also have the ambition to anchor the idea that this grouping is not a “subgroup”, continued the minister, explaining that it is indeed a grouping in its own right, strong in number (108 countries, with 75% of the world’s population), approximately 30% of global GDP and strong geographic, economic, sociological and cultural diversity; with coherent and homogeneous levels of development, where what unites is much more substantial than what differentiates.
The minister also invited middle-income countries to have the ambition to recapitalize around their assets, and to remobilize around their challenges and above all to be, each in their region, actors in regional development, and all together, vectors interregional and international development.
He, on another note, stressed that this high-level meeting is crucial, and that it must mark a break, noting that it is for this reason, also, that Morocco wanted to run for the presidency of the Group of Friends Middle Income Countries in order to help give new impetus to the action of this grouping.
In this regard, he expressed the conviction that the action of middle-income countries should target three fundamental priorities, namely: repositioning the group of Middle-Income Countries as an operational platform that weighs in global economic governance and repositioning international cooperation For the development.
It is also about repositioning cooperation and partnership within the group of Middle Income Countries itself, through structuring and innovative projects in areas of common interest, he argued, noting that it is as such, Morocco, acting under the enlightened Vision of HM King Mohammed VI, has always placed economic and technical cooperation with its partners as a fundamental priority of its foreign policy.
Mr. Bourita affirmed, in this sense, that Morocco has developed, particularly with sister African countries, strategic partnerships, noting that these partnerships were established according to a global, integrated and inclusive approach, based on solidarity, co -development and part of a logic of regional integration, creating a space favorable to investment and trade.
He recalled, in this context, ambitious and structuring cooperation initiatives and projects have emerged under the personal leadership of HM the King, in strategic sectors for development in the fields of agriculture, health, energy, banking and basic infrastructure, citing, among others, the Nigeria-Morocco African-Atlantic Gas Pipeline project, the Royal Initiative to facilitate access of the African States of the Sahel to the Atlantic Ocean and the projects large-scale fertilizer production in several African countries with a view to contributing to food security in this continent.
2024-05-11 13:12:29