Investment groups from across the globe are seeing Morocco as a new frontier to conquer in the business world (e.g. China - Cosco)
Jerusalem Post.
Paul Packer on doing business in Morocco: 'We are brothers'
Investment groups from across the globe are seeing Morocco as a new frontier to conquer in the business world.
By?ALAN ROSENBAUM?Published:?NOVEMBER 20, 2022 11:18
Updated:?NOVEMBER 20, 2022
MARRAKECH — Paul Packer, general partner of Globis Capital Management, discussed investment opportunities in Morocco in a one-on-one interview with?Jerusalem Post?Editor-in-Chief Yaakov Katz on Thursday. The wide-ranging conversation was held at the?Jerusalem Post?Global Investment Forum in Marrakech, Morocco, sponsored by the Jerusalem Post Group and its media partners, Global Media Holdings in Morocco and the Khaleej Times in the United Arab Emirates.
Globis Capital, which has invested in both public companies and startups in Israel over the past fifteen years, recently invested in Forafric, one of the leading wheat processing companies in Morocco, which is the first public company from Morocco to be listed on the US stock market. The company currently provides its products to?more than 45 African countries.?
Morocco continues to grow
Packer noted that Morocco is the gateway to Africa. “Over the next ten years, Morocco will reach 2 billion people with free-trade agreements with 100 countries,” he said. “This is something that we are willing to bet on and invest in. Morocco is ready for Western capital.” Packer added that Casablanca is just a six-hour plane ride from New York.
Packer also commented on the high level of education in the country and pointed out that every year,?500 newly trained engineers?join the country’s workforce. “There’s a hidden gem here in Morocco,” he said,?“which are the young Moroccan engineers that could really be a ‘one plus one equals four’ for investments.”
In response to Katz’s question about the?business atmosphere in Morocco, Packer responded that he?feels safer walking the streets of Casablanca and Marrakech than walking in New York, praising the administration of King Mohammed VI for its welcoming atmosphere. “Once they hear that you are Jewish, we’re not cousins – we’re brothers.”
(Note: Any Q regarding Chinese engagement (COSCO) in Hamburg port? UvM)
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"Innovation, not reparations, is key to fighting climate change.”
In a first, rich countries agree to pay for climate damages in poor nations
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, EGYPT –?Negotiators from nearly 200 countries agreed for the first time to establish a fund that would help poor, vulnerable countries cope with climate disasters made worse by the pollution spewed by wealthy nations that is dangerously heating the planet.
The decision regarding payments for climate damage marked a breakthrough on one of the most contentious issues at United Nations climate negotiations. For more than three decades, developing nations have pressed for loss and damage money, asking rich, industrialized countries to provide compensation for the costs of destructive storms, heat waves and droughts fueled by global warming.
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But the United States and other wealthy countries had long blocked the idea, for fear that they could be held legally liable for the greenhouse gas emissions that are driving climate change.
The agreement hammered out in this Red Sea resort town says nations cannot be held legally liable for payments. The deal calls for a committee with representatives from 24 countries to work over the next year to figure out exactly what form the fund should take, which countries should contribute and where the money should go. Many of the other details are still to be determined.
The creation of a loss and damage fund was almost derailed by disputes that ran into the dawn hours of Sunday over other elements of a broader agreement, including how deeply countries should cut their emissions and whether to include language that explicitly called for a phaseout of fossil fuels, including coal, natural gas and oil. By 5 a.m. in Egypt, negotiators were still debating those other measures.
Developing nations — largely from Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and South Pacific — fought first to place the loss and damage fund on the formal agenda of the two-week summit. And then they were relentless in their pressure campaign, arguing that it was a matter of justice, noting they did little to contribute to a crisis that threatens their existence. They made it clear that a summit held on the African continent that ended without addressing loss and damage would be seen as a moral failure.
“The announcement offers hope to vulnerable communities all over the world who are fighting for their survival from climate stress,” said Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s minister for climate change. “And gives some credibility to the COP process.”
Pakistan, which spearheaded a group of 134 developing nations pushing for loss and damage payments, provided a fresh reminder of the destructive forces of climate change. Over the summer, Pakistan suffered devastating flooding that scientists say was made worse by global warming, resulting in more than 1,500 deaths, plunging one-third of the country underwater and causing $30 billion in damages, even as Pakistan contributes less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming emissions.
As the summit was nearing an end, the European Union consented to the idea of a loss and damage fund, although it insisted that any aid should be focused on the most vulnerable nations, and that aid might include a wide variety of options such as new insurance programs in addition to direct payments.
That left the United States, which has pumped more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any nation in history, as the last big holdout. By Saturday, as talks stretched into overtime, U.S. officials said that they would accept a loss and damage fund, breaking the logjam.
Still, major hurdles remain.
The U.S. and the EU are pushing for assurances that China will eventually contribute to any fund created — and that China would not be eligible to receive money from it. The United Nations currently classifies China as a developing country, which would make it eligible for climate compensation, even though it is now the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases as well as the second-largest economy. China has fiercely resisted being treated as a developed nation in global climate talks.
There is also no guarantee that wealthy countries will deposit money into the fund. A decade ago, the United States, the European Union and other wealthy emitters pledged to mobilize $100 billion per year in climate finance by 2020 to help poorer countries shift to clean energy and adapt to future climate risks through measures like building sea walls. They are still falling short by tens of billions of dollars annually.
While U.S. diplomats agreed to a fund, money must be appropriated by Congress. Last year, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden sought $2.5 billion in climate finance but secured just $1 billion, and that was when Democrats controlled both chambers. With Republicans, who largely oppose climate aid, set to take over the House in January, the prospects of Congress approving an entirely new pot of money for loss and damage appear dim.
“Sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to a U.N. sponsored green slush fund is completely misguided,” said Sen. John Barrasso, a Republican. “The Biden administration should focus on lowering spending at home, not shipping money to the U.N. for new climate deals. Innovation, not reparations, is key to fighting climate change.”.....
There was a brewing debate over what to call the new fund. Developing nations consider it “compensation” and climate activists often refer to it as “reparations.” But diplomats, particularly the Americans, called the money “loss and damage resources.”
In addition to a loss and damage fund, developing nations used the climate talks to push for reforms at two of the world’s biggest lending institutions, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund....
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U.S. Dep. of State.
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