These contemporary notions corroborate not only the dynamics of global policies, but above all the efforts made by the Kingdom to respond to these issues specific to emerging countries.

Indeed, the objectives of the EBRD's new mandate in Morocco are in line with the orientations of the New Development Model (NMD) and the new governmental program, which converge towards capitalizing on the Kingdom's development achievements and consolidating its progress towards more harmonious and sustainable growth.

In this sense, the new Director of the EBRD in Morocco, Antoine Sallé de Chou, said in an exclusive interview with MAP, that the current progress report offers an ambitious vision and a comprehensive strategy to address the main challenges facing the country in its development, including those related to inclusion, environment and digital.

Newly appointed to Morocco, Sallé de Chou's mandate emphasizes inclusion, particularly of women, as "a pool of resources that we are missing".

Noting the bank's goal to accelerate its support for women, youth and rural populations, he announced the upcoming launch of a new version of the "Women in Business" financing program dedicated to women, as well as a similar instrument for youth in the coming months.

It will offer enhanced financing lines to women entrepreneurs, providing them with business development assistance and mentoring, as well as technical support to banks to help them adapt their service offerings to women entrepreneurs.

Saying he was "convinced" that advanced regionalization is a powerful lever for regional inclusion, Sallé de Chou expressed the EBRD's willingness to support regions and provinces in their investment programs, and to help them acquire the necessary resources to fully play their regional planning role.

On the digital component, he noted that the health crisis has demonstrated both the benefit of digital and revealed the delay of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in this area, whether it is their e-commerce offer, the digitization of their internal processes, the management of their supply chains, or simply skills.

"We estimate the needs of Moroccan SMEs in digital investment at 10 billion euros," he said, assuring that dedicated financing instruments are being prepared for SMEs, large companies, in addition to public programs, but also in support of digital infrastructure.

In addition, Sallé de Chou, who recalled the ambitious goal of the Kingdom announced at the 26th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) held in Glasgow, stressed that Morocco occupies "undeniably the place of leadership" in the region in environmental matters. However, he noted, additional efforts should be made to gain more in terms of competitiveness.

In this regard, the head of the EBRD's operations in Morocco stressed that the Bank's financing has enabled a reduction of 730,000 tons of CO2 equivalent since 2014, displaying the Bank's desire to "remain a privileged partner of this ambition" via the expansion of its MORSEFF program for the financing of energy efficiency, small-scale renewable energy and waste and water management projects.

Sallé de Chou also expressed the EBRD's willingness to accompany the rise of renewable energies, by offering its expertise for the development of an attractive regulatory framework - in particular through the amendment of Law 13-09 and the opening of access to medium voltage.