Morocco’s House of Representatives (parliament’s lower house) approved on Tuesday the 2021 budget.
The bill was approved by a majority of 61 deputies and rejected by 36 during a plenary session chaired by Speaker Habib El Malki.
The approval was in a second reading after the House of Councilors (second chamber) approved it.
The bill will enter into force after being published in the Official Gazette.
The budgets focuses on national products, supporting Moroccan contracting companies and bolstering the purchasing power.
It calls for establishing the “Mohammed VI Investment Fund” as a national investment fund that contributes to raising economic competitiveness and keeping pace with the kingdom’s major projects in the post-pandemic period.
The House also unanimously approved a bill on trust services for electronic transactions, which is in line with the government’s attempts to facilitate and regulate e-transactions.
Minister Delegate to the Head of Government, in charge of National Defense Administration, Abdellatif Loudiyi, said the bill represents “a cornerstone for the rest of the legislation in the fields of cybersecurity and digital trust.”
“Rabat’s great digital development calls for creating a climate of trust that includes all digital services and provides economic actors and public administrations with a legal environment that enables launching new services and ensures legal protection for citizens and encourages them to opt for digital transactions,” he explained.
The bill aims at setting a new legal framework that meets the needs of the public and private economic actors, public administrations and citizens by regulating e-signatures, e-seals, e-time stamping, registered e-transmission services and website verification, Loudiyi added.
The approval on the bill comes in light of the pressing need to provide remote services due to the coronavirus pandemic.
