General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises elected Mehdi Tazi as its new president on Thursday, handing leadership of Morocco’s main business lobby to a finance and insurance executive as companies prepare for major economic and industrial shifts tied to the 2030 World Cup, technological transformation and export expansion.
Tazi won 3,773 votes out of 4,123 cast, or 91 percent, during the employers federation’s general assembly in Casablanca, alongside vice president Mohamed Bachiri, a senior automotive industry executive linked to Renault Group’s operations in Morocco.
The vote formalized a leadership transition after the departure of outgoing president Chakib Alj, who had led the federation since 2020 through the COVID 19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions and inflationary pressures linked to the war in Ukraine.
Tazi, a former vice president of the federation and former head of Saham Assurance before its sale to South Africa’s Sanlam, takes over at a time when Morocco is attempting to reposition itself as a regional industrial, logistics and export platform.
His program focused heavily on competitiveness, local industrial integration and lowering structural business costs that companies say continue to weigh on investment and production.
Tazi called for a shift away from prior authorization systems toward post control mechanisms, alongside reform of local taxation and modernization of Morocco’s labor code through negotiations between the government, unions and employers.
He also pledged to push local integration rates to 70 percent in sectors capable of deeper domestic sourcing, drawing on Morocco’s automotive industry model, which has become the country’s largest export sector over the past decade.
Logistics costs remain a major pressure point for Moroccan companies, Tazi said, noting they still account for roughly 19 percent of GDP compared with 10 to 12 percent in OECD economies.
The new federation leadership also placed unusual emphasis on artificial intelligence and industrial modernization, announcing plans for a “Morocco Innovation Lab” expected to launch in 2027 to help companies develop automation, digitization and decarbonization capabilities.
Tazi also highlighted what he called a major imbalance in Morocco’s export structure: while exports have climbed to roughly 470 billion dirhams annually, only about 6,000 Moroccan companies currently export.
The employers federation represents nearly 100,000 companies, around 95 percent of them small and medium sized businesses.
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