On October 8 and 9, Deputy Speaker Hayat Boufrash, accompanied by a parliamentary delegation from the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors, participated in Bali, Indonesia, in the high-level meeting of members of the “Network of Parliamentarians of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,” held under the theme “Human Capital Development.”
The event is part of the annual joint meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and is attended by 3,500 participants, including experts, finance ministers, government officials, World Bank and IMF officials, parliamentarians, and representatives of civil society.
In remarks by Ms. Hayat Boufrashin on the topic of “Economic Inclusion of Youth and Women,” delivered in response to the presentation by Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and Ms. Kristalina Georgieva, President of the World Bank, Hayat Boufrashin highlighted the socio-cultural and socio-economic barriers and challenges that prevent young people and women from benefiting from the economic and development boom Morocco is currently experiencing. She also asked about “the practical and preferential measures the World Bank intends to take to harness the human capital represented by young people and women, who remain excluded from the calculations of financial institutions that rely on digitalization and technology to advance human capital, while developing countries continue to grapple with the scourge of illiteracy.”
Members of the Moroccan parliamentary delegation—which included, in addition to Ms. Hayat Boufrash, Mr. Idris Al-Saqli Adawi, Chair of the House of Representatives’ Public Finance Oversight Committee; Mr. Mohamed Al-Wlaf and Mr. Lahcen Haddad of the House of Representatives; and Mr. Rahal Al-Mkaoui, a member of the House of Councillors and Chair of its Finance Committee—emphasized in their remarks that “Morocco believes that investment in human and intangible capital is the most important economic driver for achieving sustainable growth, through investment in education and health and a focus on combating bribery and corruption and achieving social justice,” and called on the financial institutions to monitor illicit financial transfers and combat money laundering.
Members of the Moroccan delegation also explained that “the issue of employment is a highly complex and multifaceted one that must be addressed on two levels: the first is a horizontal level linked to growth rates and the business climate; the second concerns aligning training with the needs of the labor market, while emphasizing that the true concept of development lies in human development by people, for people.”
Moroccan speakers emphasized that the difficulties faced by innovative small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries are partly due to their lack of access to the digital data held by major global corporations, a situation that leads to the concentration of highly skilled jobs in developed countries. This places the responsibility on international financial institutions to create an environment that facilitates access to information and strengthens the competitiveness of developing economies.
