Casablanca – Morocco has further improved its business environment, rising to second place in both Africa and the Arab world, according to the second edition of the World Bank’s Business Ready report, released this week. The report highlights Morocco’s progress in regulatory frameworks, public service delivery, and private sector development, while identifying areas for continued improvement.
The Kingdom achieved an overall score of 63.44 out of 100, up from 62.41 in the first edition of the report. This score is above the global average of 60.11, as well as the African average of 50.87 and the Arab world average of 58.31, demonstrating Morocco’s position among the leading emerging economies in the region.
The Business Ready framework, which replaced the World Bank’s former Doing Business methodology, evaluates countries on ten thematic areas covering the full life cycle of a company, from establishment to exit. It is built around three core pillars: regulatory framework, quality of public services, and operational efficiency. The first two pillars rely on input from experts and practitioners, while operational efficiency is measured using data from the triennial Enterprise Survey, which monitors the performance of firms on the ground.
The latest edition of the report expanded its coverage to 101 economies, compared with 50 in the previous edition, with 60 percent of countries assessed having higher per-capita income than Morocco. At the global level, South Korea leads the rankings with a score of 78.24 points.
Morocco achieved notable gains in the first two pillars, with a regulatory framework score of 70.06 points and a public service quality score of 64.55 points. In particular, the country performed strongly in several key areas essential for private sector development:
- Public utility services: 80.05
- International trade: 74.5
- Business creation: 73.95
- Business location and establishment: 73.82
- Financial services: 68.24
These results reflect Morocco’s sustained efforts to modernize its business environment, improve access to infrastructure and services, and facilitate entrepreneurship. The report notes that Morocco now outperforms many upper-middle-income economies in business creation and establishment, while also delivering reliable access to electricity, water, and internet services. Access to international markets has also improved, supported by digitalization of trade procedures.
However, Morocco’s performance in operational efficiency declined slightly to 55.7 points, compared with 59.66 in the previous edition. The World Bank attributed this reduction to methodological factors, including the broader sample of countries and the reuse of data from the 2023 Enterprise Survey. This pillar captures how effectively regulations and services are implemented in practice, highlighting the gap between regulatory design and real-world application.
The report underscores that despite this temporary setback, Morocco continues to perform above global averages in several strategic areas, particularly business establishment, trade facilitation, and public utility services. Progress is also evident in competition policy and dispute resolution mechanisms, which enhance legal certainty for investors.
At the same time, the World Bank identifies priority areas for further improvement, most notably labor market performance and corporate insolvency resolution, which are critical levers for stimulating private investment. Long-term trends indicate structural challenges in job creation: while Morocco’s working-age population has grown over the past decade, labor force participation—particularly among women—remains low, and unemployment rates continue to exceed pre-pandemic levels. Female labor force participation, for example, has declined from 30.4 percent in 1999 to 19.1 percent in 2024, among the lowest rates globally.
Other areas for potential reform highlighted in the report include improving judicial efficiency, enhancing digital public services, ensuring transparency in electricity, water, and internet distribution, upgrading trade-related infrastructure, and promoting environmental sustainability and gender equality. Addressing these challenges could further enhance Morocco’s attractiveness to private investors and strengthen inclusive economic growth.
Overall, the second edition of Business Ready confirms Morocco’s upward trajectory in business climate reforms, demonstrating tangible improvements in regulatory quality, public services, and trade facilitation, while signaling clear avenues for future policy action. The report portrays Morocco as a leading economy in Africa and the Arab world, showing the impact of ongoing reforms and the potential for further progress in creating a competitive, transparent, and inclusive business environment.
