Joe Biden's administration strongly supports economic projects with Moroccan ties in the area of influence of the Saharawi territory

Estados Unidos profundiza en el compromiso con Marruecos respecto al Sáhara Occidental

photo_camera PHOTO/AFP - The flags of the United States and Morocco next to a map of Morocco authorised by the US State Department

The United States continues to demonstrate its close cooperation with Morocco regarding the development of Western Sahara and Morocco's sovereign position over the territory. 

In this line, a delegation from the American Embassy in the North African country went to Dakhla and Laayoune to talk with those responsible for economic projects promoted by the Executive of Joe Biden in this area.

The US Embassy issued an official statement in which it pointed out that these projects, included in the US-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI), an agency under the US State Department, include the digital investment platforms DakhlaConnect and LaâyouneConnect, launched respectively in January and October 2021.

MEPI provided $100,000 in funding for both platforms, thus providing significant support for their evolution.

The US delegation spent four days in the region and presided over a ceremony to present diplomas to fifty young people who benefited from training courses in digital marketing, e-commerce and networking, with a view to helping them set up their own businesses. 

Un arco en la entrada de Dajla con una imagen del rey de Marruecos Mohamed VI, en el Sáhara Occidental

The young people received classes between April and December, which were held at the Regional Investment Centre (CRI), the headquarters of the Dakhla Region and at the National School of Commerce and Management (ENCG) in the same city, as reported by the EFE news agency.

As part of this proposal, around 50 entrepreneurs from the Dakhla-Ued Eddahab region benefited from the training funded by the US government in the framework of the project 'Promoting Economic Opportunities in Dakhla', through the aforementioned US-Middle East Partnership Initiative, as reported by Rue20.

Implemented by the US consulting firm J.E. Austin Associates, which is based in Dakhla. Austin Associates, which is based in Washington and has a regional office in Rabat, in collaboration with the Regional Investment Centre (RIC) of Dakhla-Ued Eddahab, these training sessions, which are part of the second phase of the project 'Support for youth and women entrepreneurs', aim to enable active entrepreneurs to boost their turnover by improving their visibility on the internet, social media marketing, e-commerce and networking, as reported by the Moroccan news agency MAP and Rue20.

Thus, the beneficiaries of this training focused on digital marketing attended five three-day training workshops that took place between April and December 2021 at the CRI.

Dajla

Michael Karim Buret, regional director of J. E. Austin Associates, in charge of the implementation of this project, explained that the DakhlaConnect digital territorial marketing platform receives around fifty applications per month from investors from all over the world, some of whom want to set up in Dakhla to develop their businesses.

There was also an opportunity to present the results of the first phase of the project 'Promoting economic opportunities in Dakhla', related to the DakhlaConnect digital platform that aims to develop economic activity in the region, through an innovative search engine, which allows the search and geolocation of companies according to their sector of activity and their points of interest, as reported by the MAP news agency and Rue20.

The initiative also includes a vocational training programme for unemployed youth in the two Sahrawi cities, as reported by the EFE news agency. 

The two digital platforms launched cover more than 10,000 companies that received tens of thousands of visits and enquiries from potential investors from various parts of the world, as noted in the official statement itself.

El exsecretario de Defensa de Estados Unidos Mark Esper (Izquierda) firmó un acuerdo de cooperación militar con el ministro delegado de Defensa Nacional de Marruecos Abdellatif Loudiyi (Derecha) el 2 de octubre de 2020, en la capital Rabat

This initiative may be a sign of the close collaboration between the United States and Morocco, enhanced after the support given by the North American country to the Alawi kingdom in December 2020, when the past administration of Donald Trump publicly supported the Moroccan proposal to solve the decades-long conflict in Western Sahara, which consists of a broad autonomy of the Sahrawi territory under Moroccan sovereignty. Several international powers have shown their support for this option in addition to the United States, such as the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Germany. Morocco, in return, established in-depth diplomatic relations with the Israeli state, following in the footsteps of the US-sponsored Abraham Accords, which established diplomatic relations between Israel and Arab countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Opposing this proposal is the initiative for a referendum on autonomy for the Sahrawi population advocated by the Polisario Front, which has less international support, including that of Algeria, Morocco's great political enemy in the Maghreb, which broke off relations with the Kingdom last August. 

America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra

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