IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

For the first time, the Smart City Fair will be inaugurated in March 2023 in the city of Casablanca in Morocco, with the aim of presenting more concrete solutions and innovations for the future

The Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer of the Hassan University of Casablanca will host the first edition of the ''Salon PedagogicAfrica Smart City''. The event will be held from 15 to 17 March 2021 under the theme ''Moroccan engineering at the service of the smart city''.

Morocco’s Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani called for establishing a national e-strategy which promotes the integration of digital technology for the African country to catch up with world countries, after its rank slid in the latest United Nations e-government survey.

In the UN E-Government Survey 2018, Morocco ranked the 110th out of 193 countries vetted worldwide. Before, Morocco ranked 85th.

Morocco has set out an ambitious national strategy “Maroc Digital 2020” (Morocco Digital 2020) in a bid to boost the development of the digital economy sector, but several obstacles are still hindering its acceleration.

The government’s Maroc Digital 2020, which is the continuity of the impetus created by the previous national strategy "Maroc Numeric 2013", seeks to reinforce the North African country’s position as a regional digital hub and enhance its digital skills and governance.

The event will discuss several themes in a context marked with challenges such as land scarcity, water stress, energy consumption as well as climate change.

WeCasablanca, a branding initiative dedicated to promoting Casablanca’s assets, announced that the eighth edition of Casablanca Smart City will kick off on June 5-6.

This year’s edition will discuss the theme “From Smart Citizen to Smart Metropolis,” serving as a platform to highlight the importance of urban development aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Moroccan delegation was headed by H.E. Mohamed Saad Alami, Minister Delegate to the Prime Minister in Charge of the Ministry of Public Sector Modernization, Morocco. During the meeting with Dubai eGovernment officials, which saw the presence of H.E. Ahmed Al Ismaili Al Alawi, Consul-General of Morocco in Dubai, and Ali Hassan Aljawi, Expert HR Programs at the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources, Dubai eGovernment showcased its experience in leading eTransformation in Dubai, which succeeded in establishing a knowledge-based economy in the emirate.

Morocco's public sector is increasingly wired with information and communications technology (ICT) but faces challenges in equipping and supporting employees, a recent survey showed.

The new biometric national ID smartcard for Morocco will be supplied by Idemia, which announced the deal to supply the e-ID cards for authentication to online services in support of the development of the country’s digital economy.

Under the contract signed with Morocco’s Direction Générale de la Sûreté Nationale (National Security Government Department – “DGSN”), Idemia will provide the cards for use with online services and transactions, along with a platform for secured digital identity online services. This will enable government agencies and private online service providers to tap into the new digital identity system to provide Moroccans with user-friendly, fast, and secure access that safeguards the privacy of their personal data on the e-ID cards, according to the announcement.

The inaugural day of the Casablanca Smart City 2024 event, organized by Casablanca Events & Animation, featured yesterday engaging discussions and workshops centered around the theme “From Smart Citizen to Smart Metropolis.”

The event, aimed at professionals, provided a platform to showcase, exchange ideas, conduct strategic reflections, and propose concrete operational solutions to address the challenges of rapid metropolization, exacerbated issues such as water stress, energy consumption, scarcity and complexity of land, and the encroachment on agricultural land.

The Ministry of Equipment, Transport and Logistics has launched “MarRoute”, a mobile application designed to provide commuters and passengers with information and news regarding traffic.

In a communiqué released on Tuesday, the ministry said that the application, which informs users about road conditions, is a part of its strategy to ensure the safety of it commuters and passengers.

Morocco-based startup, DabaDoc, a service that allows people book doctors’ appointments online, has expanded to Algeria and Tunisia.

With the expansion, DabaDoc now supports over 2,000 doctors in the three countries.

Founded in 2014 by siblings Zineb and Driss Drissi Kaitouni, the platform features doctors in 72 different specialties across 50 cities, enabling thousands of patients to connect with doctors through the website.

Moroccans will soon be able to file complaints about the country’s public administrations using Chikaya, a round-the-clock service for tracking complaints by citizens.

Following an agreement signed on Thursday, the Ministries of Industry and Reform of the Public Administration and Civil Service will launch the platform, called Chikaya, in January 2018, aiming to improve satisfaction with the services of the kingdom’s public administration.

The Programme aims at achieving four key objectives: Strengthen public finance management, improve efficiency in human resources management, control the civil service wage bill and streamline procedures and introduce e-government. The overall goal is to promote strong economic growth and sustainable development, thereby strengthening the competitiveness of the economy while ensuring medium-term macro-economic viability.

According to data included in Morocco's candidacy for the International Telecommunications Union Council's elections held in Guada la Jara (Mexico), the mobile phone network reached 25.3 million in 2009 while the number of users of land phones was estimates at 3.5 million with a coverage rate of 92.46%.

Morocco's e-government programme is only in its first year but it still has a long way to go.

Just 31% of government departments are computerised, according to a government study released December 16th. There is only one computer for every three civil servants. Internet connectivity is no more than 60%.

"Administrative departments provide 208 electronic services, 47% of which are available in Arabic. The number of civil servants working in this area represents only 1.19% of the total. On average, they receive three days of training. Further efforts need to be made on this issue. There is more work to do to meet the challenge," said Public Sector Modernisation Minister Mohamed Saâd Alami.

Morocco is making progress in e-government sector but lags behind some countries in Mid­dle East and North Africa.

Moroccan King Mohammed VI called for the reform of public administration in an address at the opening of the autumn session of the new parliament, a week after the legislative elections.

“True commitment to political and party principles means one should put the citizen above all other considerations. It means one should fulfill the promises made to the citizen and show dedication in serving him or her, making those promises prevail over any party or personal interests,” the king said.

The database, which can be accessed through the Secretariat General's website at www.sgg.gov.ma, compiles all legal texts published since 1913, covering a period of more than 93 years.

Morocco is pressing forward with the e-government strategy that focuses on greater integration and wider use of information technology in public services.

The "Maroc Numeric 2013" strategy, launched at the behest of Trade and Industry Minister Ahmed Reda Chami, includes a roadmap for setting up 89 new online services by 2013, with 15 of them going live by 2011.

Morocco cannot stay on the fringes of the universal digital society because it would affect its competitiveness and development efforts, said Jettou at the opening of the annual national forum of e-administration "e-forum 2005."