Economy

The Fez-Meknes region is home to more than 40 historic sites – including three UNESCO World Heritage sites – and tourism is an important driver of growth.

Agriculture is the most important economic sector by contribution to GDP for both Morocco as a whole and for the Fez-Meknes region, where farming represents half of economic activity by value. The region boasts a variety of agricultural resources, including a large head of livestock, a diverse crop base and 1.34m ha of arable land, 14% of...

King Mohammed VI came to power 20 years ago, following the death of his father, King Hassan II, in July 1999, after ruling for 38 years. Towards the end of his reign, King Hassan II had begun to make liberalising reforms, appointing left-wing opposition figure and human rights lawyer Abderrahmane Youssoufi to head the government in 1998. The...

Since the early years of the current century, Moroccan companies – in particular in the telecoms, financial services and phosphate sectors – have been expanding into sub-Saharan African countries, with an initial focus on francophone West Africa that has since widened to much of the rest of the continent. A large share of Moroccan investment...

The Moroccan executive branch consists of the monarch, who is the head of state, and a government – the head of which is appointed by the king but must be led by the party that gained the most votes in the most recent legislative elections. The government has to command a majority in the lower house of Parliament and currently consists of a...

Morocco is the 25th-largest country in Africa and has a geographic area of 446,550 sq km. The kingdom has 2363 km of land borders, shared with Algeria, Mauritania, and the small enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which are located on Morocco’s north-eastern coast but are under Spanish control. It also has a 1835-km-long coast, most of which is...