The first major decision has been by the king of Morocco to set up a COVID Fund to collect public and private donations. This fund, which has reached more than 3 billion dollars, is meant to implement emergency measures on the health, social and economic levels.

The second aspect I would like to emphasize is that the parliament voted a decree-law to declare a state of health emergency. This decree law establishes the legal framework to allow the implementation of the emergency strategy and its measures, in accordance with our constitution.

These measures are focused on 3 different levels: health, social and economic measures.

1. Health measures:

• early on, Morocco closed its air, sea and land borders to block entry into the territory of infected people.
• it has imposed generalized containment with a curfew at 6 p.m.
  an administrative authorization is issued during the containment period for any person who has to leave its house, except in specific cases.
• the COVID Fund helped strengthen the capacities of the public health system (a system which unfortunately had a great deficiency).
• wearing of a protective mask has been made compulsory for any person going outside for any reason. And several textile factories have been transformed into manufacturing units of protective masks – Morocco now produces more than 5 million masks per day.

2. Social measures:

• the COVID Fund provides a monthly monetary allowance to any household that needs it, all over the country and during the state of health emergency. This subsidy is barely less than the minimum wage.
• For the first time in Moroccan history, a money transfer has been organized for the poorest and most vulnerable households and those whose family head has momentarily lost his (or her) job. (People in the rural world and in the most remote regions, often unbanked, all received text messages on their mobile phones explaining where to withdraw the money).

3. Economic measures:

• an Economic Monitoring Committee has been set up. It brings together the government, the private sector, the banking sector and the central bank who monitor the evolution of the economic situation in Morocco.
• in addition to the monthly allowances paid to employees of companies in difficulty, a moratorium has been set on the reimbursement of bank loans and credits, for businesses and individuals.

As a conclusion, I would say that although we do not know the extent of the economic consequences of COVID-19, we work daily to adapt our responses

This pandemic and its global impacts prompts us as parliamentarians to push for further reforms which seemed until now impossible or improbable, such as the health system transformation, or a basic family income, an idea that I personally advocated in parliament only two months ago.

We are of course ready to share our experiences with legislators from any country who expresses the wish. And I thank you for your attention.