Before the MPs who are members of the Basic Infrastructure Commission of the House of Representatives, the Ministry of Transport and Logistics presented its 2023 action program. Indeed, Mohamed Abdeljalil has set himself six priorities, in agreement with the professionals of the industry. In addition to the amendments to the Highway Code, one of the priorities involves the implementation of the provisions of the decree relating to the conditions of access to professions in the sector of road transport of goods.
On the menu is also the continuation of the digitization of services and the examination of the possibility of creating a flat tax system for the benefit of small businesses. Other priorities include the possibility of integrating vehicles with a load of less than 3.5 tons into the freight transport system. Added to this is the simplification of procedures relating to the Transport Commission and the acceleration of the processing of outstanding applications. Between February 2022 and April 2023, the House of Representatives Committee on Basic Infrastructure held 28 meetings to deal with several applications. With regard to the public transport of passengers, the Commission allowed the renewal of the authorizations of 53 applications of natural persons, 15 legal persons, the conversion via the inheritance of 25 cases, and the transfer of 43 others. In the area of tourist transport, 173 companies have been authorized for the first time.
In addition, a program aims to increase the attractiveness of public road transport. Indeed, according to the Ministry of Transport and Logistics, the improvement of quality and safety revolves around three pillars: the vehicles, the professional drivers, and the basic infrastructure. The first pillar aims to provide the benefit of modern technological means to help drivers while driving. Ditto for the preparation of the modernization program for the fleet of passenger coaches and a reduction in their average age. For professional drivers, it is a question of developing and upgrading the training system and driving license examinations reserved for category D. To this is added the integration of new technologies in the supervision and training of drivers. On this last point, the Ministry of Transport and Logistics has decided to prepare a vision of the conditions of access, in the light of the current situation, of the observations of professionals, and of the international benchmarks. This involves preparing a draft decree, the first version of which has been distributed to professionals to collect their comments and proposals. The next step will be to conduct a broad campaign among professionals to make them aware of the new provisions of the draft decree, namely the conditions for access to, and exercise of, the profession in order to enforce fair competition in the sector. Ditto for the support measures for SMEs.
Mohamed CHAOUI
