This green public order “symbolizes the coherence between our words and our acts by orienting public spending and money to a lasting future, giving us more development possibilities and more coherence to our policies,” said Lekjaa during the “Climate Smart Public procure conference” for the countries of the Arab world and the Mena region (Middle East and North Africa-Middle East and North Africa).
In this sense, the Minister noted that green public procurement, which aims to be a transversal tool, affecting energy, transport, circular economy and social inclusion, can direct practices towards more sustainability and send a strong signal to private operators.
For him, the creation of a public request for green innovation is not only a long -term economic efficiency tool, but it is also a vector of state exemplarity. Mr. Lekjaa also recalled that public finances play a lever role in sustainable development, highlighting the efforts made to direct public spending to projects with a strong environmental and social value, adjust taxation so that it encourages eco -responsible behavior by developing green financing such as green sovereign obligations and greening public order.
The integration of ecological and social criteria in tenders makes it possible to stimulate green innovation and encourage local entrepreneurial fabric and create a training effect on the entire market, he explained. And to continue: “We are determined to make the State a model of sustainability and we will ensure that the Moroccan administration gradually integrates eco -responsible practices in its daily operation, energy consumption, waste management, public purchase, etc., demonstrating the exemplarity of the administration to all the players in society”.
For its part, the regional director prosperity at the World Bank for the MENA region, Nadir Mohamed, presented a global vision to transform environmental challenges into economic development opportunities, indicating that the MENA region is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, but it has considerable assets to become a leader in the green economy.
In this regard, he underlined the central role of public procurement in this transformation. “In the MENA region, public purchases represent an average of 18% of GDP. Orienting this financial mass towards environmentally friendly goods, services and infrastructure can create a major training effect on the entire economy and stimulate the emergence of competitive green sectors. The World Bank undertakes to support this transition through targeted funding and suitable technical assistance ”.
Mr. Mohamed detailed the World Bank’s strategy to support the countries of the region in this transition. According to him, it is an approach combining three dimensions, namely the strengthening of regulatory executives to institutionalize sustainable public procurement, the development of the technical capacities of public buyers, and the promotion of innovation through pilot projects.
For her part, the director of the French Development Agency (AFD) in Morocco, Quiterie Pincant, highlighted the AFD approach in terms of green public procurement. “Our strategy is based on three pillars: the financing of projects with high environmental value, technical assistance to public institutions and support for innovative local initiatives,” she said.
Mr. Pincent said that the agency has developed tools for assessing the climate impact of public procurement which allow you to systematically integrate climatic considerations into the public purchasing processes and to ensure rigorous follow -up of the results.
“AFD also mobilizes technical assistance dedicated to supporting public institutions in the development of their sustainable purchasing strategies,” she added, deeming the sharing of experiences at the international level.
Also took part in the opening of this conference, the general treasurer of the kingdom, Noureddine Bensouda and the Division Director of the World Bank in Morocco, Ahmadou Moustapha Ndiaye, as well as Hmed Aggarcine, Hub Manager in Isdb (Islamic Development Bank – Islamic Development Bank) in Morocco, Valerie Robert, Associate Director for the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (BERD) And Anand Kumar Srivastava, Chief Procurement (Operations) at NDB (New Development Bank).
