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Topic Discussion I
Politics of Hard Choices
Political Transition and Economic Restructuring
Room 2
(7 of 14 pages)
The international economic changes and also the absence of the old systems imposed
new rules of the game that we need to conduct policies. For example, now all barriers are lifted, for example,
all the custom tariffs are different now and note our duties are imposed, as you know, that there will be in the
coming few years more liberalization of trade. Of course, this all created the new facts. In reality we cannot
find solutions for all the problems. What happened is that our relations with the opposition have always been troublesome,
we have civil society that has developed their relations, were always conflicting relations, we try to have a new
start and to start fresh to have a social dialogue with our partners, with the businessmen, and with the employers
since 1995, and we could also sign some agreements which were really helpful and useful. Of course, this contributed
to the establishment of confidence and to decrease confrontation. The opposition could win the government in 1995
and -- '97, sorry, and it hasn't done much during this time, but Morocco won a lot because the opposition used
to say before it entered the government, that we can create the economic reform, but now they are in the government
and they know what difficulties facing the economic reforms and they know that they need now the approval, they
tell us today that we cannot do anything today, we have to wait for tomorrow.
So the economic restructuring and the economic reform need time and this is an important factor in this process,
so our political partners and part of the civil society, which joined the government, have started to work seriously
starting from their convictions and on principles, and a number of people who talked before me talked of the people
and the role of education and the role of women, we all try each in his domain and his own field to find answers
for the questions posed, we don't have answers right now, but we try to mobilize our efforts in order to achieve
all our aspirations. I think that we need more funds to finance some of the projects like health insurance and
some social problems for the children and women, which are not in the depth we aspire them to be, but we at least
try. So we try to eliminate all sources of confrontation and conflict, and we try to do whatever possible to us
in order to have development. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Larry Diamond: --- observation on something you've said, we are looking for some practical ideas on how
to build support and consensus for a broad course of economic reform. You have, I think, suggested an interesting
principle about how to build such consensus, and that is to either share power or in the case of Morocco, to rotate
power because when people who are in opposition are suddenly forced to govern or to take some responsibility for
governing, then they realize that the answers are not so easy. I think that it will be interesting to hear any
other further reflections from other countries on this possible strategy for building a broader coalition for reform.
You're next, sir, perhaps you could give us your name and where you're from again. I'm sorry, I didn't get it the
first time.
Speaker: My two colleagues from Morocco have just talked on some of the aspects in Morocco, so I will confine
to the economic aspect in Morocco, talking of the Moroccan experience in the economic field. Of course, now there
is -- I am now with the majority, my party was in the opposition side for 40 years, but I have to stress the fact
that we have democracy and there is a strong relation between democracy and economic reform. I personally wonder
and am surprised at some of the ideas posed which say that you cannot have democracy and poverty at the same time
or hunger. I think that we need officials who can express themselves, who can express their ideas, otherwise we
cannot develop the situations of those people unless we give them the freedom of speech, for example, so they can
express their problems.
Mr. Chairman, I'd like to stress some of the aspects related to Morocco. From the economic viewpoint, we've witnessed
some difficulties since 1983 because some of the international organizations try to impose some policies in the
field of economy that might be important, but they are at the expense of the society and this created problems.
Now, we are -- of course, we are on the side of these problems, but we need to give more attention to the economy.
The present government is expected to give a lot, but we cannot plant and grow at the same time, we cannot plant
and pick up fruits at the same time, we need time. We are in an international forum and it's not enough to meet
here and to pose some questions or to give some advice, we are in the emerging democracies, we are here to meet
with people who have experience in democracy and who have experience in the development and in the reforms, so
we are not begging for information here because we do have resources, but there should be some support from the
economic aspect because in Morocco, for example, we have many difficulties, so 33 percent of our GDP is directed
to pay our external debt. We are not asking for exemptions from this external debt, but we need some facilities
in the repayment of these loans, for example, and in this debt because this will support our economic process.
At the same time, we witness now and we now that our government now is conducting a dialogue with the people and
of course, talking with the people requires money because you need funds to finance all the programs the people
need, and as my colleague has just said, when it comes to the investment you need to have confidence and a suitable
environment, enabling environment for investment, so we are working in this aspect in Morocco in order to create
this confidence in the minds of the foreign investors and the local investors alike. The government is exerting
all possible efforts in order to achieve such successes, but we cannot work single-handedly because we need support,
and I need to stress here that there is a strong relation between democracy and economic development. Thank you,
Mr. Chairman.
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