Washington- The 2013-2014 report has revealed that Morocco has dropped 7 places, from 70th place to 77th place out of 148 countries.
However, Morocco remains ahead of its fellow Maghreb countries with Tunisia falling 43 places to 83rd place ranking, Egypt at 118th, Algeria at 100th, and Libya at 108th.
There are many reasons why Morocco may have declined in the global competitiveness report over the last year. There have been residual effects from the global economic crisis a few years back that certainly impacted Morocco’s top industries: agriculture, tourism, and fishing.
Additionally, Morocco has faced various political setbacks since 2011 including mass protests and domestic political instability. Though Morocco’s overall score was 77th place, Morocco has made steady gains in specific areas such as financial market development, the macroeconomic environment, and in Morocco’s availability of scientists and engineers, they rank 39th worldwide.
This report comes at a crucial time in Morocco’s development process. Recently, the monarch, King Mohammed VI, has publicly proclaimed Morocco’s goals for the future including strengthening diplomatic ties worldwide, greater economic action, and a focus on human development in education and job opportunity.
The World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness report, ranks countries based on an index that determines macroeconomic and microeconomic competitiveness according to the criteria of: 1) institutions; 2) infrastructure; 3) macroeconomic environment; 4) quality of health and primary education; 5) access to higher education and training; 6) goods market efficiency; 7) labor market efficiency; 8) financial market development; and, 9) technological readiness.
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