Presentation of the Sustainable Competitiveness Observatory at the Policy Center for the New South.

This presentation gave rise to numerous exchanges on competitiveness in Africa and in particular in Morocco.

The Sustainable Competitiveness Observatory (SCO) set up by FERDI with the support of CERDI, AFD and the French program "Future Investment," is an innovative tool to measure economic strengths and weaknesses for each of 54 African countries. 

With open access, the OCD provides a statistical dashboard based on a battery of some 200 indicators that makes it possible to determine the state of play of each country or sub-region. It compares economic trajectories with those of the major emerging powers of China, India and Brazil. The menu of the OCD is structured around three dimensions that closely determine the ability to grow the Domestic Product per capita: vulnerability, attractiveness, and price competitiveness.

In conclusion, Patrick Plane stressed that Morocco has benefited from its stability, away from the major social-political movements that have shaken the region. Its Domestic Product is also less sensitive to rainfall than it was in the past. The country is also attractive, its weak point remaining an insufficient development level of its human capital. Finally, while price competitiveness is lesser than Algeria or Tunisia, the country is well above the African average and is progressing on market shares that mark a certain success in productive diversification.