EWI's Hassan and Abdul-Shafi of the MENA Program Head to Morocco

News | June 18, 2019

Members of the EastWest Institute’s Middle East and North Africa (MENA) program will be in Morocco this week participating in two events.

How Can Special Economic Zones Lead to Growth and Integration in North Africa?

Rabat, Morocco — June 19-21

EWI’s Vice President for the MENA program, Kawa Hassan, will join MENA Program Associate, Wael Abdul-Shafi, to co-lead a workshop on special economic zones in North Africa. The three-day event is a partnership with Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) and the Moroccan think tank Policy Center for the New South, who will host at their headquarters.

Former ministers, officials, business leaders, regional and international experts from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, Oman and Europe will investigate how Special Economic Zones (SEZs) can make greater contributions to national and regional economic development, what types of SEZs are most suited to the Maghreb, and what policy and investment actions can be taken to realize their potential. The workshop’s objective is a Policy Brief covering the actual and potential role of SEZs in the Maghreb Region, policy recommendations and suggested next steps.

The Unbearable Burden of Democracy: What path to salvation?

Assilah, Morocco — June 21-22

Hassan will speak on the first panel of the 41st Symposium of The Assilah Forum Foundation at The Prince Bandar Bin Sultan Library. Established in 1978, the Assilah Forum Foundation is an NGO working to promote diaologue between cultures and civiliazations by bringing together elite policy-makers and academics from both the developed and developing world.  

The panel will work to diagnose the current state of democracy—the crises, what is at stake and the qualitative transformations, with attention to the various economic, media and cultural factors—and defining their tangible effects on the international situation. Panel participants include prominent institutional executives and political leaders.