FDI – Morocco: 14th global destination in terms of jobs created by FDI

IBM’s Global Location Trends, which analyses the foreign investment contribution to job creation, confirms in its 2018 executive report the leading role of Morocco in Africa, and offers an interesting analysis of the dynamics of the “4th Industrial Revolution”.

The Global Location Trends database tracks cross-border “greenfield” and “brownfield” (expansion) investments around the world with a focus on job creation rather than on invested amounts.

In 2017, job creation through foreign investment (FDI) globally decreased (-5%). This decline affected countries such as China, India, Mexico and multiple other emerging markets. In Africa however, job creation through FDI increased, especially in a few countries among which two Mediterranean countries: Morocco (+30% compared with 2016) and Algeria (+275%, after a bad record in 2016). “Morocco is now the top destination country for foreign direct investment in Africa measured by number of jobs created, bumping Ethiopia down to second place”, and outpasses countries such as Canada and Spain, as shown in the Figure 2, below.

IBM’s report also sheds light on the most strategic sectors for job creation, the first of which being: transport, tourism, ICT, chemicals, electronics; agrifood, services to companies and distribution (see Figure 7 of the report, reproduced below).

Finally, the Global Location Trends 2018 underlines the rise of fintech and other promising niche tech opportunities, defined as industries at the crossroads between digital technologies and traditional sectors such as agritech and logistics technologies. The rise of these sectors, assimilated to the emergence of the “fourth industrial revolution”, results in two simultaneous effects: a growth in investment projects in the ICT sector itself, and a shift towards smaller manufacturing facilities, closer to key markets.

Political and economic leaders should now take all necessary measures to embark in this new revolution, by investing primarily in their education and training systems, infrastructure, regulations and entrepreneurship support mechanisms. ANIMA Investment Network is engaged on several of these priorities, particularly through THE NEXT SOCIETY initiative, which aims to strengthen innovation ecosystems and foster technological and human collaborations between European and southern Mediterranean countries.

To learn more : ibm.biz/GLTR2018 et www.thenextsociety.co