COUNTRY FOCUS : MOROCCO
E-government
Oracle sets up Lab in Casanearshore Park in Casablanca
In May 2022 Oracle announced it will establish a branch of Oracle Labs , Oracle ’ s advanced research arm , at Casanearshore Park in Casablanca to house up to 100 researchers .
Taking advantage of its new state-of-the-art facility , the team will collaborate with Morocco ’ s technology sector to support the identification , exploration , and transfer of innovative technologies that can advance Oracle ’ s customer ’ s businesses worldwide . This effort will include expanding intern and graduate recruitment programs , undertaking joint research with local universities and working with the local start up ecosystem so they can be part of this global program .
The new Oracle centre in Morocco will work on a wide range of R & D projects focusing on technologies such as automated Machine Learning and Explainability , the PGX Parallel Graph Accelerator solution , and Oracle ’ s MySQL Heatwave ML .
“ Establishing this new Oracle R & D centre in Casablanca will enable us to access an outstanding pool of talent from across the region , benefit directly from its new economic ties to Israel ,” said Safra Catz , Chief Executive Officer , Oracle .
“ In addition to their outstanding technology skills , most engineers in Morocco speak three languages and bring an open-minded and creative approach to their work . This makes them ideal members of a team focused on developing technology that will play a significant role in our rapidly evolving , global society ,” said Dr Hassan Chafi , Vice President Research and Advanced Development , Oracle Labs . maintain its competitiveness and go higher up the value chain in order to compete with firms emerging across the continent .
A key priority under the current IT development strategy is to accelerate ongoing efforts related to e-government . One successful e-government initiative is Portnet , an online platform designed to ease foreign trade operations and simplify documentation processing . As of September 2016 Portnet connected all ports under the authority of the National Ports Agency .
Morocco has also developed online services for tax returns for large and medium companies , construction permits and other Customs operations . Expanding the number of public administration processes that are digitised has the potential to cut costs , reduce the risk of waste and improve the link between Moroccan citizens and the state , and it has been prioritised by the authorities accordingly .
While there have been some successful e-government programmes , broader efforts have been slow . According to the latest UN E-Government Survey published in 2018 , Morocco ranked 110th out of 193 countries for implementation of its e-government systems , 25 positions lower than the previous survey published in 2016 , but still in the top-10 countries in Africa . The authorities expect that implementation of the Digital Morocco Plan 2020 will help the Morocco achieve its ambitions in this area . The ICT sector is likely to continue expanding over the coming years , although the pace of growth will hinge on several factors . Mobile telecoms are set to continue to be a key component of sector activity , buoyed to a large degree by the ongoing development of data services , which will need the support of local content development by operators for its potential to be fully harnessed .
The business approach to regulation has helped the sector improve its competitiveness and ensure more people have access to telecoms services . However , to further improve the level of competition in the market , existing laws governing the sharing of infrastructure need to be adequately enforced , which will help put all of the market ’ s competitors on an even playing field .
Although it still lags behind telecoms in terms of dynamism , the IT sector will benefit from the implementation of the government ’ s Digital Morocco Plan 2020 . By establishing its own dedicated agency for IT development , Moroccan authorities have underlined the importance of transitioning to a digital economy to the country ’ s future development . However , for the strategy to succeed , efforts to bridge the digital divide and increase penetration must be kept on track .
Source : Part information excerpted and edited from Oxford Business Group . p
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