Morocco … 20 yrs of sunshine, tangible achievements

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Kingdom celebrates renewal of loyalty to King Mohammad VI

KUWAIT CITY, July 29: Every year on July 30 for the past 20 years Morocco has been celebrating the ‘loyalty and allegiance’ day to honor and commemorate the ascension of King Mohammad VI to the throne of his ancestors including his late father King Hassan II (We pray to Allah to repose his soul), and the international community have been following Morocco very closely as the modern face of Africa considering its political stability and effective economic policies. Over the past twenty years the Kingdom of Morocco has made giant strides in various spheres upon direct orders from the King which has benefitted segments of Moroccans without exception, starting from Oujda in the far East to Tangier in the far North and Quwairah in the far South.

Those who have been closely watching the economic renaissance of Morocco will discover how gigantic projects have taken shape over the past two decades, mainly thes Tanger Med Port — the largest seaport in the Mediterranean Sea and Africa that has the capacity to accommodate up to 9 million containers per annum, in addition to excellent and modern services provided for travelers and exporters of Moroccan products. The 320km/h high speed Al-Boraq Rail Line has also been inaugurated which is unique and stands out in Africa and the Arab world linking Tangier to Casablanca through the capital city of Rabat.

The Noor Solar Power Plant is the largest in the world, currently produces 580mw and is expected to generate 2000mw in 2020. Morocco aims to position itself as a major competitor in the motor spare parts, which will make it one of the largest car manufacturers in the world and use it as an engine for its economic development under the leadership of King Mohammad VI. Morocco is committed to employ a new method in car manufacturing based on diversification of channels, restructure professional economic system, lay down mechanisms for support with appropriate finance and improve merger of sectors to suit the fast production plant.

Morocco aspires to increase its car producing capacity to one million by 2020 and be counted among the seven biggest car producers within the next few years. This is when Renault and Peugeot industries will reach the production capacity of 700,000 units. The tourism sector in Morocco has witnessed a tremendous growth considering the number of tourists that has reached 13 million from various parts of the world, including Europe, Gulf, North America and Asia. Morocco has built vast tourism complexes especially the country enjoys a unique 3,500 kilometers of coastline on the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

Family Code (Mudawanah) and Specialist Councils
The Moroccan Family Code came by virtue of the law passed by the Parliament in 2004 with the blessing of King Muhammad VI. The Mudawanah was enforced in February 2006 to protect women and child rights. He Mudawanah increased the marriage age to 18 years for both genders in addition to the cancellation of the clause which prevented women from getting married without the approval of her father or in case if the father was dead the woman needed to produce 12 witnesses.

The enforcement of the Family Code resulted in minimizing the number of divorce cases, increased the number of marriages and brought stability to the family. The amendments to the National Council for Human Rights law in 2011 provided more power to this national institution especially in terms of enhancing its independence in order to make it more capable of protecting human rights and enhancing democratic values.

The National Council for Human Rights investigates the complaints and verifies any encroachments on human rights and offers consultation that match national laws with international treaties concerning human rights. The institution also looks into fatwas and memorandums on human rights. The Environmental, Social and Economic Council established on Feb 21, 2011 which has the Royal support of King Muhammad VI edits the studies and offers consultations to the government and the Parliament.

The Government, the Parliament or the Council of Consultants can seek the Council’s advice on issues concerning social and economic matters and give its opinion within the stipulated time of 20 days to two months. The Moroccan initiative to solve the issue of Moroccan Desert has wide global support represented in the resolutions issued by UN Security Council and the support of a big number of countries including Kuwait. The initiative is aimed at reaching a permanent agreement which includes providing autonomy to the provinces in the Moroccan desert.

Foreign policy
As part of the principles of the Moroccan foreign policy, Morocco is committed not to interfere in the affairs of other countries. At the same time, Morocco closely follows up the Arab, African and regional issues especially those concerning Palestine since King Muhammad VI chairs the Jerusalem Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

His Majesty always stresses the importance of solving the Palestinian issue -the issue of the independent Palestine State with western Jerusalem as its capital. The Kuwaiti-Moroccan relations have greatly development over the recent past through meetings of the supreme joint committee headed by ministers of foreign affairs in both countries.

The committee held its last meeting in Kuwait in April 2019 and it resulted in the signing of a number of agreements and memos of understanding in addition to the continuous exchange of consultations and coordination between the two countries either concerning Arab, regional or international issues.

The cooperation between Kuwait and Morocco is based on the directives of the leaderships of both countries represented in His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and His Majesty King Muhammad VI. Over the years, Africa has represented the vital space for Morocco due to a number of factors including historical, religious, commercial and cultural ties especially with the part of Africa below the Moroccan Desert.

Morocco has always exerted efforts to enhance its presence on the African front in all fields through its participation in maintaining security and stability in the regions which witness tensions. Morocco took part in preserving the sovereignty and national unity of African countries. Those efforts fruited in Morocco uniting with the institutional African family during the 28th summit of African leaders which was held in Adds Ababa in January 2017 with a vast majority of the voters. Morocco is considered the largest African investor in Africa.

Terrorism
Due to its special geographical location, Morocco lies at the heart of the region which sees instability because of the growing number of terrorist groups, spread of extremism and terrorism especially in Africa. Add to this the dramatic spread of phenomenon of foreign militants who return home after completing the task assigned to them. There is another source of danger which is represented in the lack of stability in a number of North Africa countries.

Morocco adopts a specific strategy to confront terrorism and extremism. This strategy includes a number of procedures such as the establishment of local and regional councils of scholars in addition to authorizing the Supreme Council for Scholars to be the one and only body that can issue fatwas and put an end to fatwas issued by extremists. The strategy also stresses the importance of providing religious guidance to Moroccans living abroad according to the laws of the host nations.

The strategy considers the importance of training preachers and clerics from both genders to be capable to fulfill their duties. King Muhammad VI Institute for the Training of Imams Murchidenes and Murchidates inaugurated which was inaugurated in March 2015 provides training not only to Moroccan citizens but to the citizens of any country. The strategy includes rehabilitating and up-grading traditional education and merges it with the united national educational system.

This task includes reviewing the educational curricula and the text books concerning religious education either at private sector schools or those at the public sector. Morocco will always be the land of hospitality, openness, coexistence and peace, doing its best to enhance the peace loving culture. Morocco is the land of the three divine religions; Islam, Judaism and Christianity.

Concerning the Moroccan commitment to the international declarations of human rights and immigrants’ rights and the international act for refugees, the election of King Muhammad VI as a pioneer of African Union (AU) for immigration makes Morocco a powerful and active defender of African issues both regionally and globally.

Regarding environment protection and use of clean energy, Morocco adopts the concept of unsustainable development which enhances the balance between environment, economy and society.The strategy aims at developing the citizens’ standard of living and enhancing the unsustainable management of natural resources and encourages the establishment of environment-friendly projects.

By Shawqi Mahmoud Al-Seyassah Staff

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