Rashid El Abdi : Limiting territorial disparities and safeguarding gains seen as priority for the council Presidency of the Rabat – Salé – Kenitra region

The Rabat – Sale – Kenitra region, with its three Governors’ offices, its four provinces and local populations estimated at 5 million people, enjoys various potentials which make of it a lever for different sectors in Morocco such as industry,agriculture, tourism and scientific research.

This region, which includes Governors’ offices of Rabat – Salé– Skhirat– Temara and provinces of Kenitra, Khemisset, SidiKacem and Sidi Sliman, with its surface above 17.570 square km, which is 2.5 % of the Kingdom overall geographic surface, faces a lot of challenges seen by Mr. Rashid El Abdi, the newly-elected President of the region council, among the most important of them is how to limit territorial disparities and safeguarding the acquired gains as a priority for the council Presidency, which is working hard in rationalizing deployed efforts aiming at heading for the right direction and making them more efficient”.

In a statement to MAP (Moroccan official news agency), Mr. El Abdi said that there are in fact territorial disparities between the region cities which some of them find themselves more or less in a pleasant situation and that “our role is to eliminate those disparities and also work to safeguard the gains”, adding that present skills among members of the region council have enough qualifications that would permit the achievement of targeted goals.

He has made clear in this context that the region Presidency will rely in this process on open and participative management either with institutions or with citizens, in the context of participative democracy provided by the 2011 constitution.

According to the newly – elected President of the region, to manage this large territorial issue requires big stakes related to a number of sectors, “as there is a kind of awareness that first we have to meet those challenges by focusing on issues and present files/dossiers and then to respond to citizens’ ambitions within the framework being defined by national programs, especially the new development model”.

Concerning defined priorities, Mr. El Abdi stated that those are incorporated in programs of the political parties which will constitute the incoming government and which will focus on increasing GNP, reducing unemployment by 9%, and attracting foreign capitals; stressing on the necessity to upgrade infrastructures, setting up an appropriate tax system and rehabilitating human resources qualified for production.

Regarding national investments, Mr. El Abdi has confirmed that the region should enjoy some attractiveness more than other regions in the context of complementarity; and that the region should have its share of investments considered as an engine for employment; containing on the other hand, that the region is called to contribute to the environmental sector as a national project led by His Majesty King Mohammed VI.

Among other sectors which the region council will focus on are mainly culture and sports to make use of youth as productive components, and this through luring investments by concerned public sectors and by opening rehabilitation centers for the sake of employment market and also enriching and upgrading the cultural sector to contribute to development process, the President of the region council has also considered that tourism potentials should also be rehabilitated at the level of the Rabat –  Salé – Kenitra region and bring it to meet the requirements of both national and foreign tourists.

In the same context, Mr. El Abdi has asserted that current political bodies which have constituted the region council share the same concerns and that there is a strong desire to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic crisis and re-launch national economy while “our role is to make use of this coherence to better rationalize efforts to move to the next stage”.

He has considered that the Rabat – Salé – Kenitra region could not achieve its targeted goals only by strengthening the region’s competencies embodied in its vision and working program to be among the outstanding other 11 regions of the Kingdom.

Mr. Rashid El Abdi (from the PAM) was elected last September 18 the President of the Rabat – Salé – Kenitraregion council after he was the sole candidate running for that position. He won with 63 voices, three voices against and four members’ abstentions.