Morocco, Best Offshoring Destination 2012: The Kingdom Wins
25 July 2012
Read by 4020 persons
A trophy rewarding Morocco's success. Despite challenges, Morocco is determined to open new markets, making the country a platform for major French, Spanish, and English-speaking clients.
1. Le Matin: Morocco was just named the best offshoring destination for 2012 by the European Outsourcing Association (EOA). What does this award mean to you?
Abderafih Hanouf: MedZ Sourcing won this trophy for Morocco. We are very proud. The EOA trophy rewards the best performance of offshoring host countries from Europe. This trophy recognizes the country's major assets in terms of sector maturity, direct benefits for businesses, infrastructure and service quality, quality of established businesses, and the country's reputation on the global offshoring scene. It's important to remember that offshoring was a priority in the Emergence Plan strategy, a proactive policy targeting areas where Morocco can position itself internationally. His Majesty the King has closely followed this policy since the beginning of the last decade. The Kingdom outperformed five shortlisted destinations for this prestigious award: South Africa, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Egypt. This award will reassure and strengthen our existing clients. It will also allow us to improve our rankings, increase our visibility, and encourage those who haven't yet chosen Morocco to consider it.
This distinction is a good achievement. However, it comes at a time of increasing uncertainty about the global economy!
It's true that the international financial crisis is in full swing, and the economic situation will be difficult in 2012, according to all analysts. Economic growth in the main emitting country, the United States, will not exceed 2%. The eurozone will continue to suffer the impact of the debt crisis and will experience a decline. France, our main partner country, will experience barely 0.2% growth at best. But the cyclical factors shouldn't worry us too much. The fundamentals of the offshoring sector are good and will remain so. Indeed, the real engine of this industry is outsourcing, a phenomenon that emerged twenty years ago in the United States and England and continues to grow.
2. What reasons can justify some optimism?
Three fundamental, structural reasons are behind this trend of the outsourcing industry's growth: First, the continuous optimization of process management for better organizational performance; second, companies refocusing on their core business; and finally, the emergence of new concepts such as shared services, cloud computing, and virtualization. These elements have favored outsourcing. The explosion of new information and telecommunications technologies has greatly facilitated it. Cyclical factors also create opportunities: the financial crisis will lead to a race to reduce costs, which will ultimately favor outsourcing. The global market will therefore grow. Thus, the European market, which currently weighs 30 billion euros, should be multiplied by 10 by 2020. The most mature markets, such as England, will see their potential multiplied by 5. Lagging markets, such as France and the Nordic countries, will see their potential multiplied by 10 to 20 times. There are also the banking, finance, and insurance sectors, which will represent nearly 180 billion euros, or 15 times the current market. As for telecommunications and IT services, their potential over 10 years is estimated at around 30 billion euros, or six times the current market. We therefore have significant market share to gain!
3. You have just inaugurated Fes Shore, and other destinations are mentioned. Is this the beginning of the regionalization of the offshoring offer?
This is part of our overall strategy for developing the sector. Furthermore, we can only participate in the regionalization desired by the new Constitution. Then, our clients need new employment pools for their organic growth. The comparative advantages of certain regions are also assets. Fes Shore is indeed the first step. It is now a reality, the new link in a network of parks dedicated to offshoring that the CDG Group, a privileged partner in public policies, has been implementing for 5 years, with unwavering commitment. Fes Shore is an essential link, which we want to meet international standards, competing with global destinations and offering the city of Fes and its region excellent employment opportunities (12,000 in the long term) and attractiveness to attract large international companies that will surely come to settle there! Fes will certainly have its place on the world map of outsourcing.
4. Let's go back to the international scene. In your opinion, Morocco has become a mature destination, and its regional leadership is undeniable. What would be the next step?
It's difficult to reach the top, but it's even harder to stay there! MedZ Sourcing is determined to consolidate and defend this acquired position. Our promotion and marketing strategy, currently mainly deployed in France, must expand. The French market represents only 4% of the global market! We plan to extend our scope to neighboring French-speaking countries soon. Then to the countries of Eastern Europe, our main competitors! And finally, to the broader English-speaking world, in an effort to make Morocco a truly global destination. The award we received opens doors to the English-speaking market, a market that weighs more than 70 billion dollars. Together, with public authorities, professional associations, and our clients, we must be able to give ourselves the means to achieve this vision. We will make the offshoring sector a true growth sector, creating jobs for our youth and wealth for our country.
5. A vast program! But are you aware of the challenges to overcome?
Of course, we are! The challenges to overcome are far from negligible. In the short term, we must face the cyclical risks in 2012 and prepare for the recovery in 2013. We must avoid at all costs a loss of competitiveness for Morocco, by working together on the availability of qualified human resources in sufficient numbers, limiting the social risks that have been the downfall of so many destinations, and improving our incentive framework. We must also face the protectionist intentions of some partner countries that talk about relocation, that want to act outside of any spirit of economic openness, that want to go against the current, and that seem to ignore the economic imperatives of co-location.
6. A question is currently being debated in France, in Parliament, in the Senate... in the Ministry of Economic Recovery. What do you think of all this controversy surrounding the repatriation of call centers?
If such measures could make political sense, they make no economic sense. French companies come to Morocco because they need to be profitable and because they have a competitiveness problem in France. Offshoring allows them not only to save jobs in France but also to create them! This is the very meaning of the word: co-location! I would add that globalization and market opening cannot be conceived in an unfair and unbalanced way! France and Morocco are strategic partners, and during the meeting of MEDEF members with the head of government in Rabat last March, Jean-René Fourtou declared that "both Moroccan and French companies have the responsibility to preserve and further develop this cooperation and to capitalize on this partnership." It remains that Morocco is also working to diversify its market by targeting Spanish and English-speaking markets.
7. It remains that there is an urgent need to expand our destinations and work more with the Anglo-Saxon world. Do we have the necessary resources to support this sector?
The availability of a pool of qualified human resources in sufficient quantity is fundamental for the development of the sector. Stakeholders must combine their efforts to meet the high recruitment needs of companies in the sector and ensure that the lack of resources does not hinder the growth momentum that has been sustained for 5 years. The state must develop a real training strategy. The role of Anapec must be strengthened to better support companies in continuing education, develop qualifying or retraining programs, and support programs such as the Call Academy. Training courses have been defined between professionals and training organizations in the fields of ITO and BPO. They must be implemented. More attention should be paid to languages to access global outsourcing markets.
Farida Moha.
Lematin.ma
Published July 24, 2012.
Posted online July 25, 2012.
