Benguerir — Morocco has all the essential assets to become a driving force in the world's cultural and creative industries (CCI), said the Minister of Culture, Youth and Communication, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, on Saturday in Benguerir.

"We have a young population, a heritage, cultural pluralism and an ability to manage difference and innovation, and above all we have the ambition and the will," stressed Bensaid at the opening of a conference on creative industries in Africa, held on the sidelines of the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on the initiative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P).

CCIs, he argued, are a means of turning culture and heritage into a dynamic force for creating wealth, jobs and social ties, adding that "our challenge is to become major players in CCIs."

For her part, Neila Tazi, President of the Moroccan Federation of Cultural Industries (FICC), considered that CCIs represent a productive sector in their own right, a source of wealth for our territories and considerable soft power for States, pleading, in this sense, for a strong and ambitious policy and vision.

Tazi also pointed out that the FICC and the ministry in charge of the sector are working closely together within the framework of a public-private agreement aimed at strengthening the ecosystem of these industries, describing this partnership as "exemplary".

Organized jointly by the IFC and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, this event highlights the importance of cultural and creative industries as a driver of economic and social development.

The event is attended by leading figures from the public and private sectors, notably from the creative and cultural industries in Africa and around the world.