¿Cómo está adaptando la industria marroquí su producción a la COVID-19?

As a reminder, after registering its first case on Monday 2 March, the Kingdom quickly took drastic measures to contain the epidemic. Starting with the closure of its borders with the main affected countries such as Italy, Spain and France, Morocco then announced the suspension of all air links on Sunday 15 March, before establishing a general lockdown on Friday 20 March until further notice, when the country had 79 cases.  

In addition to other basic needs sectors that have also responded to this crisis, such as distribution, where the major supermarkets have adapted their sales strategy to offer new home delivery services, or the education sector, which has rapidly implemented digital solutions to provide correspondence courses, the country's priority has naturally shifted to the health sector.  

While Health Minister Khalid Ait Thaleb was reassuring about the Kingdom's ability to respond to the crisis during a televised interview on Tuesday 31 March, several initiatives have been launched, thanks in particular to the support of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and the Green and Digital Economy.  

The country intends to take advantage of its industrial sector, which has been able to develop in recent years, under the impetus of the Industrial Acceleration Plan (IAP) 2014 - 2020. During this period, more than 400,000 new jobs have been created (balance sheet at the end of 2018) and 54 industrial systems have been created, such as the automotive, textile and aeronautical industries.

Consequently, when the second phase of the IPA was organised for the 2021-2025 period, private companies, in coordination with the public sector, worked together to adjust industrial production and help the population and regions that lacked the necessary means to cope with this unique crisis.

In this sense, at the beginning of April, the textile industry - which at the end of 2019 employed more than 185,000 workers in more than 1,600 companies and represented 15% of the industrial GDP of Morocco - has mobilised, through the Moroccan Association of Textile and Clothing Industries (AMITH), to convert some of its members to the manufacture of masks and aim for a production capacity of 4 million units per day by mid-April. In addition to being produced in record time, these masks will meet the standards of the Moroccan Institute of Standardization (IMANOR), demonstrating their quality and making them accessible to health personnel. 

“Although most of our members are working for free now, it is a good example of solidarity from the Moroccan textile industry,” said Jalil Skali, vice-president of AMITH.

This news is all the more important since the Moroccan government announced on April 6 that it was enforcing the compulsory wearing of masks and setting the selling price at 80 cents each. 

At the same time, the industrial plant of Lamatem in Berrechid, inaugurated in October 2019 and specialising in medical textiles, has also undertaken to supply the state with medical equipment. This will include gowns, caps, overalls and shoes, which will be a major asset, while the factory can produce up to 6 million units per month.

The research and development institutes, which are also redoubling their efforts, have thus designed a 100% Moroccan artificial respirator and a temperature measuring device for patients suffering from coronavirus (COVID-19), through the work of researchers from the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. These technological innovations, made of components fully available on the Moroccan market, will be operational in both urban and rural areas, and will have an autonomy of more than 3000 hours. Once their production is completed in the coming weeks, they will be made available to the health system. The date of availability remains unknown for the moment.

In addition, professionals assure him that, although it depends in part on foreign markets and especially on China and India to produce the drugs, there will be no shortage. As Amine Benabderrazik, president of Entreprises du Médicaments du Maroc, recalled in an exclusive interview as part of the annual research of Oxford Business Group in Morocco: “80% of the drugs sold in Morocco, whether they are of origin or generic, are manufactured locally”. 

“As long as citizens do not empty the pharmacies, the stock of medicines is perfectly supplied,” Rachid Lamrini, president of the Council of the Order of Pharmaceutical Distributors of Morocco, told local media on April 3.

Review of growth forecasts 

So, although the global and national economy is affected, the Kingdom wants to reassure itself about its health management in the face of the virus. 

In mid-March, the country announced the release of a special fund of 10 billion dirhams ($975 million) to cover the costs of this health crisis. This fund will finance, on the one hand, the costs of improving the medical system, in terms of adapted infrastructures and additional resources to be acquired in the future. On the other hand, this fund should support the national economy and support the most affected sectors by this health crisis. Other measures include the suspension of social security contributions and the establishment of a moratorium on the reimbursement of bank loans to businesses.

In 2019, Morocco's GDP grew by 2.7%, and the African Development Bank projected real GDP growth of 3.7% in 2020. However, at the end of March, the Centre Marocain de Conjoncture has just updated its growth forecast for 2020 in view of the situation, revising downwards its GDP growth of 0.8% at constant prices.