Doing Business 2020 Ranking: Morocco Leaps 7 Places to 53rd Worldwide

PERSISMA, Rabat – Morocco has moved up 7 places in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 ranking, released Thursday in Washington, to 53rd place worldwide.

“This breakthrough marks significant progress towards Morocco’s goal of reaching the top 50 largest economies in the world by 2021,” the head of government’s Department said in a statement.

Morocco maintains its lead in North Africa and ranks third among countries in the North African and Middle East (MENA) region, behind the United Arab Emirates (16th) and Bahrain (43rd), and ahead of Saudi Arabia (62nd), Oman (68th), Jordan (75th), Qatar (77th), Tunisia (78th), Kuwait (83rd) and Egypt (114th).

On the African continent, the report points out that Morocco maintains its third position behind Mauritius, which ranks 13th in the world, Rwanda (38th), and ahead of Kenya (56th), South Africa (84th), Senegal (123rd) and Nigeria (131st).

“Morocco’s positive score in this new world ranking is due to the adoption of a series of important measures and reforms related to the business and activities of Moroccan companies, and which are part of the work program of the National Committee on the Business Environment (CNEA),” the statement said.

The secretariat of this Committee also played an important role in presenting to World Bank experts the reforms introduced to improve the business climate in Morocco, mainly related to the development of legal and regulatory frameworks for businesses, as well as the simplification and digitization of a set of administrative procedures on the business life cycle, in addition to the creation of electronic platforms for services and single windows.

These reforms, the same source added, have strengthened the protection of minority investors and established the principle of transparency and good governance based on international standards in this area.

As a result, Morocco’s ranking in the minority investor protection index fell from 64th place to 37th place.

Furthermore, Morocco ranked 16th in the world in terms of the building permit index by launching a new version of the electronic platform for the digital management of building permits.

Morocco’s ranking in the electricity grid connection index (34th worldwide compared to 59th last year) has also improved thanks to the facilitation of companies’ electrical connections in Casablanca through the launch of an electronic platform, called “e-Raccordement”, for submitting and monitoring medium-voltage connection requests and developing the use of prefabricated transformer substations.

The World Bank report also refers to a series of other reforms that have contributed to improving Morocco’s business climate and international ranking.