Doing business in Morocco

Morocco has lots of potential for growth if they can get some of the issues that have been hurting their economy sorted out. The country is located in a very strategic location and that provides a wealth of opportunity. Unfortunately there are a lot of government policies that discourage doing business in Morocco. However this is starting to change and potentially there could be great opportunity in Morocco.

There are good opportunities for doing business in Morocco as the country makes an effort to become a major trading center. Morocco is located in one of the most strategically important areas in the world right at the entrance to the Mediterranean. This makes it the ideal location for transporting goods to and from Africa and Europe. This is the goal of the government as a way to improve the country's economy. There is still a long way to go and that means the opportunity still exists to get in on the ground floor.

One of the problems that have made it difficult to start a business in Morocco in the past has been excessive government regulation and rules that are applied in an arbitrary way. Recognizing that this was a hindrance to growth they have made an effort to liberalize the rules. Again there is still a ways to go but they are making progress. The bigger issue that you are going to face is likely to be the low level bureaucrats who will expect some consideration in order to get anything done and even then won't exactly rush through the process.

The main opportunities in Morocco have to do with improving the country's infrastructure. There is a lot development currently going on in the country in order to bring it up to the level of other countries in the area. The other major opportunities that exist for doing business in Morocco are in agriculture and tourism. These are the two biggest areas in the economy although the government is making an effort to diversify the economy. In large part they are trying to do this by developing the financial services sector. The hope is that this will make Morocco the business center of the region.

It is important to keep in mind if you plan on doing business in Morocco that the culture is different from what you may be used to. This applies as much to the way that business is done as anything else. The main thing that you will notice is that the pace of everything is slower. Nobody is in a big hurry to do anything and you are going to have to get used to this. There is also more emphasis put on personal relationships when it comes to doing business. The Moroccans are more likely to do business with people that they know so you will have to spend time building a personal relationship with your partners.