Moroccan PM Calls for Diversifying Resources

Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani gives a speech in Rabat, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer
Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani gives a speech in Rabat, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer
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Moroccan PM Calls for Diversifying Resources

Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani gives a speech in Rabat, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer
Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani gives a speech in Rabat, March 18, 2017. REUTERS/Stringer

Moroccan Prime Minister Saadeddine Othmani has called on the government to control expenditures and resort to innovative ways to fund investments in an attempt to ease financial pressures.

In a circular to cabinet ministers, Othmani said the government will suffer from an additional financial burden of around MAD28.5 billion (USD3 billion) due to the implementation of a deal struck with syndicates, which will cost MAD5.3 billion (USD560 million) in 2020.

The minister stressed the importance of intensifying efforts on improving taxation and non-taxation resources.

Othmani emphasized the necessity of carrying out important reforms including the comprehensive reform of retirement regulations and the gradual reform of compensation, along with activating mechanisms of social support.

He placed the country’s financial and economic well being on top of the government’s priorities in drafting the state budget for 2020.

Othmani noted that reinforcing stability and economic development is full of risks, despite huge efforts exerted by Morocco in the past years.

The prime minister urged reconsidering the way investment credits are managed by giving priority to projects backed by international donors and funds, and signed in the presence of King Mohammed VI.

Othmani called for enhancing public investments by adopting a new approach which will be activated gradually starting next year, and which aims at implementing more socially and economically lucrative projects, and to enhance implementation mechanisms, in addition to relying on innovative funding procedures by activating the new legal framework for public-private sector partnerships.



Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
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Trump Taps Scott Bessent for Treasury

(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)
(FILES) Scott Bessent, head of Key Square Group and former chief investment officer of Soros Fund Management, attends the second day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 12, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho.(Photo by Drew ANGERER / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Friday said he will nominate prominent investor Scott Bessent as US Treasury secretary, a key cabinet position with vast influence over economic, regulatory and international affairs.

"I am most pleased to nominate Scott Bessent to serve as the 79th Secretary of the Treasury of the United States," Trump said in a statement released on Truth Social. "Scott is widely respected as one of the world's foremost international investors and geopolitical and economic strategists."

Wall Street has been closely watching who Trump will pick, especially given his plans to remake global trade through tariffs and extend and potentially expand the raft of tax cuts enacted during his first term, Reuters reported
The choice came after days of deliberations by Trump as he sorted through a shifting list of candidates. Bessent spent day after day at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home in Florida providing economic advice, sources said, a proximity to the president-elect that may have helped him prevail.
Other names that had been floated included Apollo Global Management Chief Executive Marc Rowan and former Federal Reserve Governor Kevin Warsh. Investor John Paulson had also been a leading candidate, but dropped out, while Wall Street veteran Howard Lutnick, another contender, was appointed as head of the Commerce Department.
Bessent, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, has advocated for tax reform and deregulation, particularly to spur more bank lending and energy production, as noted in a recent opinion piece he wrote for The Wall Street Journal.
The market's surge after Trump's election victory, he wrote, signaled investor expectations of "higher growth, lower volatility and inflation, and a revitalized economy for all Americans."
"Bessent has been on the side of less aggressive tariffs," said Oxford Economics' Ryan Sweet, adding that picking him makes the steep tariffs Trump proposed on the campaign trail less likely.
Bessent follows other financial luminaries who have taken the job, including former Goldman Sachs executives Robert Rubin, Hank Paulson and Steven Mnuchin, Trump's first Treasury chief. Janet Yellen, the current secretary and first woman in the job, previously chaired the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers.
Republican US Senator Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, Bessent's home state, said in a statement: "President Trump's economic agenda is in good hands with Scott Bessent. I look forward to working closely with Scott and President Trump to lower inflation and create the golden age of prosperity for the American people."