HM the king Chairs Council of Ministers
PERSISMA, Rabat – HM King Mohammed VI chaired, Monday at Rabat Royal Palace, a Council of ministers, said a statement read by spokesman of the Royal Palace, Abdelhak Lamrini.
Here follows the full text of the statement:
“HM King Mohammed VI chaired, Monday at Rabat Royal Palace, a Council of ministers during which several strategic legal texts and a number of international conventions were adopted.
This Council of ministers is held in the wake of the last Throne Day Speech in which HM the King defined the priority issues in the economic and social fields and called for greater mobilization, patriotism and trust between the various actors to ensure continuous interaction with the demands and needs of citizens or even anticipation of these demands and needs by providing them with local and efficient responses.
At the beginning of the Council’s proceedings, and pursuant to the high royal orientations regarding the strategic nature of “administrative deconcentration” as a necessary and urgent project that aims to consolidate advanced regionalization, promote economic and social development, encourage investment and job creation and improve the quality of social services, the head of government and the Interior minister gave before HM the King a presentation on the general orientations of the State’s policy in the field of administrative deconcentration.
This policy defines the principles and new rules that govern relations between the different components of the central and decentralised administration in order to guarantee effective management and ensure coherence between public policies at territorial level.
To this end, the State’s policy in the field of deconcentration is based on four main aspects:
-Firstly: Making the region an adequate territorial support for this policy and the Wali of the region the representative of the central authority at the regional level to lead the action of decentralized services of the ministerial departments, ensuring coordination, complementarity, monitoring and implementation of public projects planned at the level of the region.
-Secondly: Promoting decentralized services as a key interlocutor at regional level, by giving their representatives in the region the necessary decision-making powers.
-Thirdly: Supporting advanced regionalization with a series of measures aimed at backing local authorities and strengthening their capacities, backing partnership and contractualization with the various regional players, and monitoring the implementation of structuring projects at regional level.
-Fourthly: Upholding the rules of good governance in the conduct of the process of administrative deconcentration through the establishment of reference plans for the determination of competences and the means that will be transferred to decentralized services of the ministerial departments and the resulting commitments as well as the setting up of mechanisms for the steering, coordination, monitoring and assessment of the implementation of this structuring project.
In this regard, HM the King called for the necessary measures to be taken as soon as possible to transfer a first group of the Centre’s competences and means to the decentralized services and to transcend the unjustified pretexts of certain central administrations on this subject.
Given the strategic importance of the education and training sector in relation to the future of the next generation, and in accordance with the interest of HM the King in reforming this vital sector and his strong commitment to ensuring the right conditions for its success, the Council of ministers approved the draft framework law on the education, training and scientific research system.
This project, which is part of the high royal guidelines, aimed at adopting a genuine and irreversible reform of the national education system and the Sovereign’s renewed call for ownership of this reform and collective and serious support for its implementation.
This project sets out the principles and objectives establishing the system of education, training and scientific research, and those aimed at ensuring synergy between its various components so that they can fulfill their missions of ensuring quality education based on equity and equal opportunities.
The main pillars of this project are:
– The establishment of a new school open to all capable of serving as a lever for the qualification of human capital: through the integration of pre-school education, in a gradual manner, within primary education, for children aged 4 to 6 years. Once its generalization is completed, the category of children from the age of 3 will be integrated, in addition to the generalization of compulsory education for all children up to the age of 16 instead of 15 previously. This also includes the setting up of mechanisms to guarantee access for all to education, eradication of school dropouts, and safeguard of the continuity of learning with a view to eliminating illiteracy.
-Guaranteeing quality education for all: through the establishment of a new educational model capable of developing the learner’s capacities, encouraging critical thinking and creativity while being attached to and proud of national symbols. This also includes education in citizenship, universal values and initiative spirit, as well as the adoption of a linguistic architecture based on pluralism and linguistic alternation in order to prepare learners to master foreign languages at an early age. The teaching of certain subjects, particularly scientific and technical ones in foreign languages, in addition to building bridges between general education and vocational training, while adopting an early orientation from the secondary cycle.
-Adoption of a new governance model based on contractualization, responsibility, simplification of procedures, professionalism, promotion of human resources in education, as well as the integration of new communication technologies in the management of all components of the educational system.
– Adoption of a funding regime of the educational, training and scientific research system based on the principles of national solidarity and the contribution of the various stakeholders, while ensuring that compulsory education for all is guaranteed.
– Establishment of evaluation and monitoring mechanisms to overcome shortcomings and ensure continuous support for the implementation of the reform.
In order to guarantee the conditions for success for this reform, the draft framework law stipulates the creation of an institutional mechanism for monitoring its implementation, in the light of the strategic vision 2015-2030, which is the result of a national consensus and a broad dialogue involving the various partners and parties concerned.
In this sense, HM the King stressed the need to hasten the adoption of this bill and to mobilize collectively to ensure its better implementation.
Subsequently, the Council of ministers adopted a draft law on military service.
Developed pursuant to the High royal instructions, this draft establishes the principle of compulsory military service set at 12 months for citizens aged 19 to 25.
It determines the cases of exemption from military service and the measures resulting from termination of the ground for exemption until the age of 40.
The bill also sets out the duties of conscripts during military service and the rights and guarantees given to them, in the same way as elements of the Royal Armed Forces.
The purpose of applying military service is to inculcate the spirit of citizenship in young people as part of a correlation between the rights and duties of citizenship. It also opens the way to their integration into professional and social life, especially for those who demonstrate skills and a sense of citizenship and discipline, particularly in terms of integration into the various military and security forces.
In accordance with the provisions of Article 49 of the Constitution and on the proposal of the head of government and on the initiative of the Interior minister, HM the King has appointed several walis and governors to the central and territorial administration.
On the proposal of the head of government and on the initiative of the minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, HM the King appointed several ambassadors. They are:
Youssef El Amrani, ambassador of HM the King to South Africa,
Zouhour Alaoui, ambassador of HM the King to Germany,
Hassan Abou Ayoub, ambassador of HM the King to Romania,
Rajaa Naji Mekkaoui, ambassador of HM the King to the Vatican,
Samir Dhar, permanent representative of Morocco to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
Mohamed Ali Lazrak, ambassador of HM the King to Turkey,
Mohamed Setri, ambassador of HM the King to Qatar,
Khalid Naciri, ambassador of HM the King to Jordan,
Youssef Balla, ambassador of HM the King to Italy,
Lotfi Bouchaara, ambassador of HM the King to Russia,
Azzedine Farhane, ambassador of HM the King to Austria,
Yassir Fares, ambassador of HM the King to Argentina,
Amin Chaoudri, ambassador of HM the king to Peru,
Jamal Chouaibi, ambassador of HM the king to Vietnam.
On the proposal of the head of government and on the initiative of the minister of National Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research, HM the King appointed Loubna Tricha director of the Office of Vocational Training and Job Promotion (OFPPT).
At the initiative of the minister of Energy, Mining and Sustainable Development, HM the King appointed Abdellatif Bardach director of the National Electricity Regulatory Authority.
As part of the consolidation of the credibility, position and relations of the Kingdom with its various partners at bilateral, regional and international level, HM the King approved 14 international conventions supported by laws, two of which are of a multilateral nature and concern respectively the documents of the Universal Postal Union approved at the 25th Congress of the Union and the prohibition of the import into Africa of hazardous waste and the control and management of transboundary movements.
The 12 bilateral agreements concern the strengthening of relations with a number of brotherly and friendly countries, particularly in Africa, in various fields such as cooperation in the encouragement and mutual protection of investments, energy, logistics, air services, international road transport, agriculture and livestock, sea fishing and aquaculture, security and the fight against crime, vocational training in agriculture and technical supervision, as well as avoidance of double taxation in the field of income taxes.
