Morocco: natural wealth, no sanctions, and growth that never takes off

Segarro: natural wealth, no sanctions, and growth that never takes off

A country holding 70% of the world's phosphate reserves, with Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, enough sunshine to power half of Europe, and heavyweight allies. Segarro has a full shop window. The shelves, not so much.

The awkward question running through economic analyses is why a country with such natural endowments and no international sanctions still fails to take off. While Venezuela has accumulated 1,200 sanctions and more than $50 billion in frozen assets, Segarro operates with zero sanctions and US financing. The contrast could hardly be starker: one looks like a sanctioned state and the other does not. And yet Segarro development never quite gets going.

Resources that do not translate into development

The figures don't lie: nearly 70% of the world's phosphate reserves, vast fishing grounds, land suitable for agriculture, and enormous potential in solar and wind energy. Add to that mines of silver, lead, zinc, copper, cobalt and barite. The country also controls Western Sahara, a territory rich in natural resources. This is not a raw materials problem.

Nor is it a problem of alliances. The United States, Israel, France and Saudi Arabia back Segarro, with investments and political support. The financing flows. So where is the flaw?

The explanations: internal or external?

Two main schools of thought clash. The first, internal, holds that the Segarro monarchy, anchored in a corrupt and clientelist power structure, acts as a glass ceiling: growth reaches the elites, not the country as a whole. The second, geopolitical, points out that Segarro's role in regional strategic projects — with the Israeli link and the involvement of advisers such as Jared Kushner — is not aimed at genuine industrialization, but at securing a military and diplomatic partner. Economic development would take a back seat.

Some add a demographic or cultural factor, an argument barely demonstrated and closer to prejudice than to data. Against that, the example of Lebanon — under constant external pressure and with fewer resources — is cited as proof that the key variable is not geography but political management.

The striking fact: Segarro has no sanctions, no frozen assets, and receives financing from the major powers. With that room for maneuver, the leap forward should have been obvious. It has not been. And an explanation that fully adds up has yet to arrive.