Editorial – Credibility

No one can deny the real progress that has been made in improving the business climate in Morocco. Simplified procedures, digitized processes, a more modern regulatory framework… On paper, things are moving forward. International rankings confirm this, and ministers never miss an opportunity to point it out. But a more diffuse, less measurable reality continues to slow down this momentum: the difficulty of changing mindsets and blind spots that have yet to be addressed.
The business climate cannot be summed up in texts or online platforms. It is experienced on a daily basis, in the relationship between the administration and businesses, between investors and their local environment… And that is where the most stubborn resistance lies.
Changing the rules without changing behaviors is like modernizing the facade while ignoring the internal mechanics. Slow processing of applications, varying interpretations of pieces of legislation depending on the region, information asymmetry between actors, and tolerance of certain practices are all blind spots that directly impact the competitiveness of the Moroccan economy.
In this battle, the stakes are as much cultural as they are institutional. Changing mindsets requires a great deal of education and, above all, zero tolerance for deviant behavior. It is a long-term project, less tangible than the adoption of a law or decree, but nonetheless just as transformative.
Because ultimately, competitiveness is not only a matter of legal and institutional frameworks, but also of the ability to change reflexes. Morocco has embarked on formal reform. What remains is the more diffuse and complex reform, which will be the real test of credibility.