The government has set up advisory committees to assist economic policy-making in six key areas and enhance cooperation with the private sector.
In a new move aimed at strengthening relations and enhancing communication with the private sector, Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli has formed advisory committees to advise the government in six key areas: macro-economic policies; export development; the digital economy and entrepreneurship; urban development and real-estate export; and tourism development and political affairs.
The committees, whose members are expert representatives from the relevant sectors, will constitute a permanent platform for the exchange of views in support of policy-making. They will meet regularly under the chairmanship of the prime minister, with the participation of relevant ministers and heads of public authorities.
The move is part of the increasing rapprochement between the public and private sectors in order to boost the role of the private sector in the economy. In December 2022, the government announced its State Ownership Policy which targets boosting the share of private-sector participation in the economy from 30 to 65 per cent in three years.
The new committees are part of efforts to establish new channels of communication with the private sector in order to create an enabling environment for investment and to address the existing challenges and opportunities for a greater role of the private sector in the economy, said Mohamed Hanafi, managing director of LYNX Strategic Business Advisors.
It is important to have in place effective forums to support the process of policy design and coordination, said Khaled Sakr, a former assistant director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“This is essential to facilitate a home-grown reform programme that is based on national priorities,” Sakr said, an appointed member of the new macroeconomic committee. “Such forums will be essential to ensure policy consistency across economic institutions after engagement with the IMF is scaled back to routine annual consultations,” he added.
The choice of the six sectors for which the committees are being established is “spot on”, Hanafi added. “It reflects the commitment of the government to advancing the drivers of the economy in the coming period.”
The composition of the committees will help in achieving well-informed recommendations as they include both well-known academics and practitioners with relevant and diverse backgrounds, Sakr said.
Additional experts could be invited to take part on specific issues. The committees will submit regular reports to the prime minister detailing challenges within each sector and proposing practical solutions.
According to Hanafi, since the committees include heavyweights in their sectors they should “provide a vision of how to take these sectors to the next level, to increase their contribution to the economy and enable them to create jobs, and not to get into the day-to-day details of each sector.”
Based on this vision, he said that the committees will be able to identify objectives to pursue with the government, including any regulatory or legislative changes needed to take things forward.
“More proactive engagement on the development of new legislation and regulation is needed,” said Hanafi. The private sector should be a partner to the government in drafting legislation and should be consulted on new regulations being developed before they are introduced to parliament or presented for ratification.
These committees can play a role in facilitating this consultation process by proposing new methods, including electronic ones, he noted.
These parameters are important to create a win-win situation for both the public and the private sector, said Hanafi. The government needs the private sector to get expertise on the ground and address any challenges they might be facing and the opportunities they are considering, he added.
The aim is to grow the role of the private sector in the economy, with the private sector also needing the cooperation of the government to operate in an enabling environment.
Ahram Online
According to Sakr, since the committees cover key sectors, they will be able to help achieve good coordination among different policy-makers, while respecting the mandate and, when relevant, the independence of institutions, especially the central bank.
Such policy coordination, he said, has proved essential in comparable countries that have been successful in boosting exports. Morocco is an example, where this achievement was not only possible due to productivity gains through well-designed training programmes and strategic partnerships with major international players, but also as a result of prudent fiscal and monetary policies that maintained low inflation and led to a relatively stable exchange rate without losing competitiveness, Sakr said.
The committees are also committed to open dialogue, as economic reforms are likely to have costs as well as benefits, Sakr said. “It is essential to maintain an open dialogue on the pros and cons of alternative policies,” he said, adding that the committees can thus play a valuable role in facilitating transparent and engaging societal dialogue that will help strengthen both accountability and consensus.
“Such buy-in is key to the sustained implementation of socially sensitive reforms that will hopefully lead to structural transformation, stronger growth, and poverty reduction,” he concluded.
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