by Lorys Charalambous, Tax-News.com, Cyprus
During a recent seminar in Casablanca, Morocco’s Secretary General at the Finance Ministry Khalid Safir alluded to the latest financial innovations that have taken place in Morocco, and outlined the government’s future plans for the country’s financial centre.
Speaking on behalf of the country’s Finance Minister Nizar Baraka, Secretary General Safir underlined the need for financial innovation to be framed by a regulatory system ensuring the transparency of financial products, as well as the efficiency and integrity of the markets.
According to Safir, the government’s aim in terms of financial sector reform is to diversify financial instruments and the financial markets, to put in place an infrastructure, and modern governance of market institutions, and to establish a regulatory system to promote the best conditions for mobilizing savings and facilitating the financing of productive investment.
The minister alluded to existing financial products intended to mobilize savings, notably share savings plans, savings plans for housing, and savings plans for education, aimed at deepening and boosting the capital markets and at improving access to both housing and training for large sections of society.
Alluding to government plans for new markets and financial instruments, the minister made reference to plans to establish a futures markets for financial instruments to enable investors to access products to hedge against risks, and to revise the legislative framework pertaining to risk capital.
Forming part of the reforms, the minister cited plans to open up the stock market to a wider group of shareholders and to modify listing rules to guarantee greater access to financing via the stock markets for small- and medium-sized companies.
The minister highlighted the fact that two bills governing the authorities in charge of the capital markets and the insurance sector had been drafted, with the aim of establishing independent supervisory institutions.
Concluding his remarks, Safir emphasized that the reform process is designed to enable the Casablanca Finance City (CFC) to compete at international level, to promote its position and to increase its attractiveness.
The government’s reform plans for the financial centre, as outlined by the minister, bear witness to its continuing commitment to improving the regulatory, tax and legal framework for doing business in Morocco, and to increasing the number of foreign investors.
The government’s plans for its financial centre began in earnest in 2010. Measures included in the 2011 finance bill to improve the business climate in Morocco and the competitiveness of the national economy, included the setting up of the regional financial centre in Casablanca, CFC, a large-scale, strategic project aimed at creating an attractive financial centre for foreign investors. The bill also provided for various fiscal incentives.
