Morocco seeks to attract Israeli businessmen to promote high-tech industry
New collaboration between Morocco and Israel. The two countries continue with the establishment of new relations in which major projects are being foreshadowed. This May, the Alawi kingdom will host a new conference with Israel to promote the high-tech industry. Several entrepreneurs and investors related to this sector will participate in the event where the North African nation aims to attract international investment.
The Moroccan high-tech industry is in a state of improvement, with the earnings of workers in this sector being unfavourable. It is one of the booming new businesses being set up in the Alawi country. During 2021, they have only managed to earn approximately 29 million dollars. Although this is a trend, despite the money raised, since, in 2020, they managed to obtain 11.2 million dollars.
To this end, Morocco intends to offer the qualities that the country's workers have in this system. Most of them have studied in European universities, and this could be of interest to Israel in order to promote the industry. At the same time, the Moroccan Foreign Ministry is launching a programme with a German university to promote training in technology. 
Morocco's position remains one of its undisputed strategies. The country serves as a gateway to Africa, as well as to Europe and the Americas, and Israel may be tempted to start investing and extending its brand around the world. It is worth noting that the Alawi kingdom is one of the most investment-friendly places in the world, and many international companies have already travelled to the region due to the great benefits offered by the Moroccan government in order to set up in Morocco. For example, foreign investors are exempt from paying certain tax incentives during their first five years, which is of great interest to brands.
This market is showing clear growth even though it is not fully developed. According to a TechCabal report on this sector in Africa, the Moroccan high-tech industry faces a number of problems. Among them is the difficulty in streamlining the bureaucratic terms for starting up a company. Procedures take a long time to complete and businesses are slow to establish and grow.
In addition, it is very difficult to obtain global services such as Google and Facebook and start-ups are obliged to pay special taxes if they want to access these services.
The report also points out that Morocco's diplomatic relations with surrounding countries make it difficult for the sector to flourish. Countries such as Algeria, Tunisia, Mauritania and Libya maintain a closed border policy and therefore trade does not function in the same way. This means that these companies are not able to expand properly across borders.
Another reason is the lack of confidence on the part of traditional industry that these companies will set up shop. In North Africa, it is rare to see a bank or any other entity financing and supporting these companies. Institutions do not trust these start-up firms, and the stability is not very good because they can go bankrupt at any time. Also, as they do not have local investors, foreign investors rarely look at them.
Lack of innovation is another problem that reflects the slow growth of the sector. Most African countries do not succeed in creating innovative projects, but rather imitate those from abroad. Finally, the language barrier is also another factor for business development. The majority of companies in the world working in this sector are largely English-speaking. Morocco, on the other hand, is a French-speaking country, which makes finding investors who share the same language a real difficulty.
