The two agreements, worth a total of 8 million euros, were inked by Minister of Digital Transition and Administration Reform, Ghita Mezzour, ad resident director of GIZ Morocco, Kathrin Lorenz, and project manager for eGov and DigiTPME at GIZ, Timo Muller, in the presence of ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Morocco, Robert Dölger.

Covering the project entitled "Digital Transformation of the Moroccan Administration", the first agreement, worth 3 million euros, runs for 3 years, and aims to support public administrations and institutions in modernizing citizen-centric digital public services, and to implement innovative approaches to cooperation with the digital ecosystem in order to accelerate the digital transformation of the public sector in Morocco.

The second agreement is part of the "Digital Inclusion of Very Small, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises" project, and covers a 4-year period for a total of 5 million euros. It aims to strengthen the technical and organizational capacities of institutional players in the field of digital inclusion of SMEs, as well as to put in place mechanisms to reduce transaction costs for service providers in order to guarantee the digitization of SMEs, while enhancing their ability to use appropriate services for their digital transformation.

Speaking on this occasion, Mezzour highlighted the importance of the digital transformation of the Moroccan administration as one of the Ministry's largest projects, as it strives to increase its efficiency and performance, as well as to make administrative procedures and processes clearer and more visible to citizens, in line with the High Royal Guidelines.

As part of the eGov initiative, GiZ is offering its support and expertise in 3 priority areas, namely change management, through the development of a cross-functional support program for public administrations, listening to the needs and satisfaction levels of users, and the perspective of citizens and businesses, she noted.

GiZ's support also comes in the form of deployment and animation of a community of digital ambassadors within public administrations, she added.

With regard to the digitalization of the private sector, and taking into account the specificities of the national economic fabric, the Minister highlighted the importance of introducing SMEs to the potential for innovation, competitiveness and performance that digital technology offers, and strengthening their ability to use appropriate services for their digital transformation.

For her part, Lorenz emphasized the importance of the two agreements signed, insofar as they will not only enable work in two key areas, namely the digital transformation of the administration and the digital inclusion of SMEs, but also enhance this partnership to accelerate digital transformation in other sectors where GIZ has already been cooperating for several years with other ministries and partners in Morocco.

She reiterated GIZ's commitment to supporting Morocco's ambitions through its experience in advising partner governments in all regions of the world.

Dölger welcomed the partnership, emphasizing its main objective of fostering the development of a strong digital ecosystem and encouraging the creation of public-private partnerships to promote digital innovation, stimulate economic growth and speed up the modernization of public administration.