Morocco sees up to 100,000 jobs from offshoring

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CASABLANCA - Morocco aims to create up to 100,000 jobs over ten years by drawing new business from companies seeking to hive off labour-intensive service activities, the country’s industry and trade minister said.


The government is setting up a chain of specialised business zones across the North African kingdom to capture a slice of the global market for offshore services, expected to be worth 30 billion euros ($38.74 billion) over the next ten years.

The zones offer lower overheads such as telecommunication costs, simplified administration and employee training services to draw banks, insurers and IT companies.

With a plentiful supply of French and Spanish-speaking graduates, Morocco hopes to replicate the success of India, which has become an outsourcing hub for the English-speaking world.

“Over ten years we’re aiming for 90,000 to 100,000 jobs in offshoring,” Salaheddine Mezouar said on the sidelines of an economic conference in Casablanca late on Monday.

The government wants offshoring to contribute an additional $1.76 billion of gross domestic product by 2013 and help absorb a growing number of jobless graduates.

According to an official report early this year, the country needs to create 400,000 jobs per year over the next 10 years to prevent mass unemployment.

The official unemployment rate among university and high school graduates was at 18.6 percent in the first quarter of the year, compared to an overall jobless rate of 9.8 percent.