Newsletter Edition N 27 - January 2018

Transcription

1 Newsletter Edition N 27 - Editorial The PortNet Single Window on Foreign Trade Procedures takes a new step forward with the launch of the first EU-wide Multichannel Payment solution. The digitization of payment flows is the culmination of a long process that has required a lot of work, time and effort on the part of all those involved in the ecosystem of foreign trade. The first 2018 issue of the Newsletter reviews the characteristics of this new innovative service made available to economic operators (Topic of the month). In addition, we highlight the best moments of the high-level Morocco-EU meeting on the simplification of port procedures, held recently in Casablanca and attended by PORTNET S.A. (Marking event). This event enabled us to engage in a serene and constructive debate on the «Short Sea Shipping» approach with our European partners. In addition to the fixed headings (press review, interview of the month) as well as an overview of news from foreign trade players, we are focusing on the new flexible exchange rate regime, which has been in force since Monday, 15 January. Have a good read. Jalal BENHAYOUN PortNet Single Window Annual Conference The White Paper of the third edition is published The third annual PortNet Single Window Conference, held on Tuesday 12 December in Rabat, was a success. More than 400 participants took part in this event under the theme : «Virtual single window, challenges and opportunities for the competitiveness of economic operators». The White Paper of this third edition is published. It is a reference document that takes up the highlights of this memorable day. The reader will find the quintessence of the debates and, above all, the main recommendations formulated and retained by the participants. As a reminder, the 2017 edition of the PortNet Single Window Annual Conference was marked by the signing of three agreements setting out a new partnership framework for the exchange of data and the dematerialization of foreign trade formalities via PortNet. These agreements involve several leading institutions, including ADII, ONSSA, ANRT and the Association of Freight Forwarders of Morocco. 1

2 Highlight 27 Morocco - European Union Towards the creation of new maritime motorways The theme of the simplification and digitization of port procedures between Morocco and the European Union (EU) was the focus of a high-level meeting, on 24 and 25 January in Casablanca, at the initiative of the National Ports Agency (ANP), in partnership with the Directorate-General for Maritime Transport of the EU. Focusing on the development of maritime routes between Morocco and the EU, the debates exchanged during the workshops scheduled during this seminar made it possible to explore ways and means of developing common interests and a regional vision for the strengthening of maritime lines between European proximity ports and Moroccan ports managed by the ANP. Participants highlighted the Motorways of the Sea approach, «Short Sea Shipping». The latter favors short sea shipping and seeks to create an alternative to overland freight transport with what this entails in terms of fluidizing trade, reducing congestion on major motorways and reducing pollution. Cooperation between port authorities in the region is thus a strategic issue. This approach has every chance of succeeding all the more as it is in line with Morocco s policy of facilitating foreign trade formalities, as evidenced by the success of the PortNet Single Window on Foreign Trade. The same applies on the EU side, given that the Motorways of the Sea approach is in line with the new European Customs Code, in force since May 2016, which aims to «further automate all trade, in addition to the storage of information through additional IT systems that integrate new legal processes and requirements, such as the sharing of customs services and harmonized interfaces and European trade portals». The aim of the Casablanca meeting was to promote transverse cooperation between the port authorities of Morocco and the competent European agencies and authorities (France, Spain, Italy and Portugal) in order to implement simplified and digitized procedures. The aim is to establish «international fast track» links, supported by simplified and secure procedures, for the benefit of businesses and regional trade. Among the recommendations made at this high-level meeting were those made by Moroccan exporters who, through Asmex, argued in favor of diversifying entry points into Europe, along with those for boats, calling for the opening of new maritime highways from the ports of Agadir, Dakhla and Nador. Asmex also stressed the importance of mutual recognition of administrative and electronic formalities between the two sides. Last but not least, the participants expressed the wish to see a study carried out on the development and optimization of formalities and electronic exchanges between the competent authorities of Morocco and the EU through the PortNet single window. 2

3 News 27 ANP 2018, a year full of investments The National Ports Agency (ANP) foresees the mobilization of more than MAD 6 billion of investments for the fiveyear period , including MAD 2.7 billion for the year 2018 alone. The 2018 draft budget was approved by the Board of Directors on Wednesday, 27 December in Rabat, under the chairmanship of Abdelkader Amara, Minister of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water. Ms. Nadia Laraki, Director-General of the ANP, said that 2018 will be a year of consolidation of all the Agency s activity indicators. Development projects scheduled for 2018 include the extension of the Moulay Youssef pier at the port of Casablanca, dredging and unhooking of the turning circle and the access channel to the port of Agadir, the construction of the hopper connecting structure for the maritime component to the ZENATA road, and the servicing of the mainland linked to the new shipyard at the new port of Casablanca. In addition, in 2018, the ANP will continue to carry out major infrastructure projects already launched, particularly the new shipyard at the port of Casablanca, the fishing port of Casablanca, the construction of a community building at the port of Casablanca, the extension of the port of Essaouira and the construction of a multipurpose terminal at the port of Agadir. Administrative Services Launch of the «Chikaya.ma» portal for online claims processing The Head of Government, Saâdeddine El Othmani, presided over the official launch ceremony of the National Online Claims Portal Project «Chikaya.ma» on Tuesday, 9 January It is one of the major projects undertaken as part of the Administration Reform Program, in accordance with the provisions of the 2011 Constitution and the guidelines of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, stressing the need to process citizens complaints and provide feedback as soon as possible. The purpose of the «Chikaya.ma» portal is to receive complaints from citizens and ensure their treatment and follow-up, as well as to receive their comments and proposals. The complaint concerns any expression of prejudice encountered by the user when using a public service as a result of unlawful conduct by the administration or contrary to the principles of justice and equity, while the observation is linked to any expression of opinion on how to deliver a public service during or after it has been obtained. The new platform offers three main services related to the management of a complaint and the filing and follow-up of an observation and a suggestion, through three communication channels, namely the website of the portal «Chikaya.ma», the mobile application or the call center «Allo Idarati» at

4 News 27 Customs Fully dematerialized declarations The new system has been operational since 18 January. The filing of supporting documents for customs declarations will have to be done via the BADR system. The principle consists of scanning all the documents necessary to carry out customs clearance formalities. Economic operators will only have to go to the customs office to retrieve the release at each operation and collect the goods. The Administration of Customs and Indirect Taxes (ADII) has just published a circular explaining the procedure to be followed as well as a guide reviewing the technical modalities. With the electronic signature of the declaration and the documents to be attached to it, it will be automatically deposited in the administration s computer system and its author will receive a confirmation of its registration. The dematerialization process excludes conventional and occasional declarations as well as declarations for the temporary admission and export of commercial vehicles used in international road traffic. ESCWA Single Window Training Workshop for Iraq The single window system has been known and recognized as a central element of trade facilitation and efficiency. This is illustrated by the inclusion of the Single Window as a requirement in various international conventions for trade facilitation, including the WTO s Trade Facilitation Agreement adopted in In this context, PORTNET S.A. shared its successful experience in the implementation of the National Single Window for Foreign Trade and Logistics during the training workshop on the one-stop-shop for Iraq on 16 and 17 January at the United Nations House in Beirut, Lebanon. Participation in this information workshop provided an opportunity to highlight the challenges, best practices and benefits of implementing the single window system. Iraq will benefit greatly from the implementation of the single window system. Iraq s performance, on various international indicators measuring ease of doing business and trade, is very modest. For information, this country ranks 153rd out of 160 countries in the 2016 logistics performance index, a major global indicator of logistics efficiency, with a modest performance of the customs sub-indicator. 4

5 News 27 #Digitalfikra A call for projects for the Digital Development Agency No less than 182 participants and 650 ideas. This is the outcome of the call for ideas of the hashtag #Digitalfikra launched on the social networks Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, at the initiative of the Secretary of State in charge of Investment, Othman El Ferdaous. Net surfers were invited to come up with innovative ideas that could boost the digital economy and accelerate national digital transformation. Following the example of the hashtag #Fikrainvest launched at the beginning of August 2017 to receive proposals on the investment bill, Digitalfikra aims to involve and make the entire e-community contribute to the elaboration of the roadmap of the new Digital Development Agency. The Secretary of State in charge of Investment has assured on his Twitter account that «all proposals will be studied» and that «the most relevant projects will be presented to the next Board of Directors of the Agency». As a reminder, the bill establishing the Digital Development Agency was adopted last August, one year after the adoption of the Digital Morocco 2020 Plan. The figure 87,7 This is, in millions of tones, the forecast volume of trade in goods expected to pass through the ports managed by the ANP in 2018, an improvement of 6.7% over 2017, according to the ANP in a press release issued at the end of its last Board of Directors meeting, held in Rabat at the end of December. Several factors will contribute to this increase, including the foreseeable increase in foreign sales of phosphates and derivatives, the increase in imports of coal and coke, as well as the assumption of an average agricultural year with cereal production of 70 million quintals, which should translate into a resumption of cereal imports. 5

6 Figure of the month 27 Multi-channel payment Morocco s first Community solution signed PortNet Following the successful digitization of physical and information flows, the Single Window on Foreign Trade Procedures, PortNet, has taken a new step forward following the launch of a multi-channel EU payment solution, the first of its kind in Morocco. Operational since November 2017, this new innovative service offers the possibility to pay for all services related to import and export transactions. The channels concerned include online payment by credit card, automated banking machines (ABMs), e-banking sites, mobile banking applications, bank branches and local service points, thus enabling operators using the PortNet platform to pay in cash, by debit or by credit card. As a first step, the multi-channel payment solution will only cover PortNet services. It will then be extended to the payment of invoices for services provided by other suppliers in the foreign trade supply chain. The secure and accessible 24/7 multi-channel payment of port services should undoubtedly result in smoother procedures, better anticipation of the next steps to be taken by supply chain, a reduction in the length of stay of goods at ports, optimization of transit costs and, consequently, an improvement in economic activity and the competitiveness of the national logistics chain. The deployment of this new multi-channel EU payment service gives a new impetus to the dematerialization and simplification of foreign trade procedures. 6

7 Interview with a Collaborator 27 What is your mission at PORTNET S.A.? Currently, I work in the commercial department as a billing and collection agent for annual subscriptions and re-subscriptions to the PortNet service. Can you tell us about your experience within the company? It is difficult for me to describe in a few words my professional experience at PORTNET S.A. I find that being part of this ambitious project is one of the most important and interesting experiences of my career. If you are asked to describe the environment and spirit of work at PORTNET S.A. in three words, what would it be? Team spirit, ambition and challenge. What is your best professional memory at PORTNET S.A.? It is undoubtedly the effective launch of the PortNet system as well as other services, such as import titles and follow-up files, to name but these two. What are your goals or ambitions for the years to come? To excel in my work as a billing and collection manager and contribute to the development and optimization of payment methods to ensure a better customer experience for our subscribers. El Mehdi Bridiz Billing and Collection Agent Agenda 1 st of March, 2018 : IPCSA Members Workshop - Single Window and IPCSA Initiatives - Rotterdam, The Netherlands. From 14 to 15 March, 2018 : GENI Enterprises Forum - Rabat, Morocco From 23 to 27 April, 2018 : 31 st Edition of the UN/CEFACT Forum - Geneva, Switzerland. From 09 to 11 May, 2018 : 7 th edition of Logismed - Marrakech, Morocco. From 9 to 11 May 2018 : 24 th edition of the International Logistics Congress (Eurolog 2018) - Marrakech, Morocco. 7

8 Press Review 27 Recast of the Foreign Exchange Office To better support users... After being validated by the Department of Finance, the Office of Foreign Exchange s strategic plan for begins one of its most important shifts with the implementation of a new organizational chart. The aim is to remedy the dispersion of regulatory production, the interferences between the different directions of the establishment to finally put a little more order in the institution. The Office is thus moving towards more modernization through its dematerialization program, business process recast and information system. As a result, the new organizational chart has been reduced to 7 departments (instead of 9 previously) supported by 42 departments. The structure will therefore be centered on the Office s business lines to better reflect its value chain. The changes mainly concern structures dealing with the foreign exchange business. Hassan Boulaknadal, Director General of the Foreign Exchange Office, said:»this is where improvements were needed in order to be able to carry out our mission more efficiently and simplify procedures for operators. Monday, 8 January, Les Inspirations Eco Under Massa The PAI begins its regional declination On 27 January, and in front of King Mohammed VI, the Minister of Industry declined this regional shift. This was on the occasion of the official launch of the first regional implementation of the Industrial Acceleration Plan (PAI) in the Sub-Massa region. The shipbuilding industry is one of the sectors selected by the government for support in this region. Agadir is therefore confirmed to host one of the sites of the shipbuilding development plan. At the national level, this sector must receive, according to the Minister, a global investment of more than MAD 5 billion. However, public investment is a prerequisite for the implementation of this ambitious shipyard program. Indeed, the development of the sites is a prerequisite for hosting private shipbuilding, maintenance or repair companies. An increase in the investment program of the ANP (National Ports Agency) will therefore be necessary to accompany the shipbuilding industry development plan. The ANP must also redevelop its investments in favor of Agadir, because in its five-year program for , the port will receive only an investment of MAD 0.11 billion to increase the capacity reserved for the ro-ro ships. Indeed, the only shipyard construction project is currently planned in Casablanca. Monday, 29 January, Médias 24 8 Morocco-EU Asmex pleads for motorways of the sea Participating in the seminar on simplification and digitization of procedures between Morocco and the European Union, recently organized by the National Agency of Ports (ANP), the Moroccan Association of Exporters (Asmex), represented by Hassan Sentissi and Aziz Mantrach, advocated the opening of the motorways of the sea. A model that challenges both maritime and land transport stakeholders to make regional connections more fluid. The aim is to create an alternative to bottlenecks in Tangiers and Algeciras. In order to optimize deadlines and meet environmental and human safety standards, a number of prerequisites must be met. The Asmex representatives mentioned first of all the involvement of ship owners and the means to encourage them to make this transformation available to them. Likewise, the exporting community insists that we should not limit ourselves to a single boat harbor, but rather open up opportunities for connection. This would involve the operability of certain Moroccan ports with European ports. To this end, the Asmex has expressed three main wishes. The first is to see the motorways of the sea created, among others, from Agadir, Dakhla and Nador. The association also calls for the diversification of entry points into Europe and mutual recognition not only of administrative procedures between the two shores, but also of established controls and electronic data. Monday, 29 January, Aujourd hui Le Maroc Port cooperation A new Spanish ally for Tangier Med The prospects for cooperation in the various areas between the ports of Tangier-Med and Vigo were the focus of a meeting held on Monday in this city in north-western Spain between those responsible for the two infrastructures. The Moroccan delegation, led by Hassan Abkari, director of the Tangier Med Passenger port, had a meeting with the President of the Vigo Port Authority (APV), Enrique C. Lopez Veiga, and other port officials. According to a press release from the Vigo Port Authority, the purpose of this meeting was to examine possible ways of cooperation between the two ports, on the institutional, industrial and logistical level. The same source stressed that the VPA is committed to consolidating cooperation relations with Morocco, on the basis of the complementarity between the ports of Tangier-Med and Vigo, adding that the Spanish port has all the required facilities meeting international standards to ensure the success of this collaboration. In the margins of this meeting, the Moroccan delegation visited the main installations of the port of Vigo, including the control center, the container terminal, the border inspection point, the Vigo Fresh Port terminal and the fishing port. Tuesday, 30 January, MAP

9 Zoom 27 Exchange rate regime Entry into force of the dirham flexibility Monday, 15 is a milestone in the history of monetary policy in Morocco. This is the launch day of the new flexible exchange rate regime, where the dirham s parity is determined within a fluctuation band of ±2.5%, compared to ±0.3% previously, against a central rate set by Bank Al-Maghrib based on a basket of currencies composed of the euro (EUR) and the US dollar (USD) of 60% and 40% respectively. The decision was adopted by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, on the recommendation of Bank Al-Maghrib. Under this new regime, Bank Al-Maghrib will continue to intervene in the foreign exchange market to ensure its liquidity. This reform is being undertaken under favorable conditions marked by the soundness of the financial sector and the consolidation of macroeconomic fundamentals, including an appropriate level of foreign exchange reserves and controlled inflation, «the Minister of Finance said in a press release issued on the eve of the new regime s entry into force. The reform of the exchange rate regime aims to strengthen the resilience of the national economy to exogenous shocks, support its competitiveness and improve its growth level. It should accompany the structural changes that the Moroccan economy has undergone in recent years, particularly in terms of diversification, openness and integration into the world economy. The dirham s flexibility is one of the second-generation reforms that Morocco is undertaking to become one of the emerging economies. The monetary authorities reassure that the new range of variation in the dirham s quotation (±2.5%) will not have any major consequences on the economy in the short term. According to Bank Al-Maghrib, the effect on inflation will be limited, with an additional 0.4% or less, bringing it to 1.9% in 2018, with a positive impact on the growth rate estimated at 0.2%. The same applies to the effect on the price of fuel with an additional price limit of 15 cents per liter of diesel. Faced with the widening of the fluctuation band of the dirham s quotation from 0.3% to 2.5%, foreign trade operators (exporters and importers) will have to make greater use of currency hedging instruments. Previously, the fixed nature of the dirham against its basket of currencies gave the wrong impression of the absence of currency risk, hence an underutilization of hedging solutions against currency risk. However, the depreciation of third currencies against the dollar and the euro (e. g. Nigerian naira) reminds us that this exchange risk exists. Now that the dirham will be able to evolve more strongly, this perception of risks should evolve. There will therefore be a stronger incentive to use currency hedging instruments «, stressed credit insurer Euler Hermes in a press release issued on Wednesday, 17 January. One week after the entry into force of the new flexible regime of the dirham, the Exchange Board published a circular setting out the conditions and procedures for carrying out hedging operations against currency risks. The transition to a flexible exchange rate system of the dirham is a «very good decision» of the Moroccan government, said the director general of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagardeo on Tuesday, 30 January in Marrakech. Speaking at the Regional Conference on Global Growth, which was held under the sign «Opportunities for all: growth, jobs and inclusion in the Arab world», Christine Lagarde noted that «international markets and foreign investors will appreciate this decision by the Moroccan public authorities». 9 Janvier 2018

10 Contact us Harbour building of Port of Casablanca, 2 nd floor Port of Casablanca, 20000, Casablanca, Morocco contact@portnet.ma portail.portnet.ma