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FOM Newsletter April
2001
Morocco Week in Review
April 28, 2001
More
than one billion plastic bags disposed in Moroccan streets
Morocco
devalues dirham by five pct vs dollar
Moroccan
craftsmen pledge to protect children's rights
Morocco
Tries to Improve Status of Women.
Morocco
cuts 2001 GDP growth forecast to 7.0 pct
Rabat
enregistre un déficit commercial de 990 millions D.US
Morocco-WB
talks on anti-poverty struggle
Children's Summit
Ends In Marrakech
African
First Ladies' Summit Adopts Marrakesh Declaration
First
Ladies Undertake to Protect the Girl-Child's Rights
No Mad
Cow nor Foot-and-Mouth case in Morocco
Morocco
hosts regional conference on human rights education
Morocco to
enforce IT strategy, PM says
Morocco
vies for world telecom body top post
Morocco,
Amnesty International sign cooperation accord
Morocco
gets 15 proposals for fixed telecom tender
Shots from
Morocco's 'Four Feathers' Set
More than one billion plastic bags disposed in Moroccan streets.
Environment, 4/24/2001
More than one billion plastic bags are disposed of in Moroccan streets annually, causing a serious threat to environment, a study by the environment department said. According to the study, Moroccan households use more than 10,525 tons of plastic bags annually and each household throws away between 70 and 100 bags every year. As no recycling is possible, the thrown bags roam across streets and countryside, marring the landscape and blocking the sewage system. Their danger is even more present in the country-side, where the bags, made out of highly toxic material, end up in the stomach of hungry cattle. In a bid to counter the threat, the environment department recommends the use of environment friendly paper-made bags. The department also devised a draft law to ban the use of the plastic bags, which take centuries to degenerate. Morocco hosts 400 factories, specializing in making the lethal bags.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010424/2001042426.html
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Morocco devalues dirham by five pct vs dollar.
(Updates with analysts comments, background paragraphs 4-10)
RABAT, April 25 (Reuters) - Morocco on Wednesday devalued its national currency by five percent against the U.S. dollar to an average 11.5 dirhams in response to repeated pleas from local exporters, a finance ministry official said. The unexpected devaluation, the first in 11 years, put the exchange rate of the dirham at an average 10.25 against the euro, the official said. The European Union is the North African country's main trading partner, accounting for two thirds of its foreign trade. Exporters' associations in the past two years had repeatedly urged the government of Socialist Prime Minister Abderrahmane El Youssoufi to devalue the dirham in order to boost exports. "The government has partly satisfied exporters without harming Morocco's macroeconomic balances," Ahmed Laaboudi, head of leading think-tank CMC, said. The move, he said, was also motivated by an expected low inflation, healthy foreign reserves estimated at six months' imports and a relatively good 2000/2001 cereals harvest. The CMC forecast an inflation rate of 2.5 percent this year against 1.9 percent in 2000 and a cereals harvest of between 5.0 and 5.5 million tonnes for the agriculture-based economy, sharply up from 1.8 million tonnes in the previous season.
ENCOURAGE EXPORTS
"The devaluation sought mainly to re-launch exports and reduce the trade deficit," said Rachid Laaziri, head of research at Credit du Maroc Capital brokerage. By boosting exports, Morocco wants to improve foreign currency receipts to pay back its $16 billion foreign debt. Morocco's trade deficit stood at 45.2 billion dirhams in 2000, up 40 percent from 1999, official figures showed. Analysts at Upline Securities brokerage firm said the devaluation would have a positive impact on the depressed Casablanca bourse. "We recommend to investors to buy shares of export-oriented firms such as ... mining company Managem and Societe Miniere d'Imiter and Unimer ," Abdessamad Issami, an analyst at Upline Securities said. He said the devaluation would also benefit key exporting sectors such as citrus and textile. However, the Textile and Clothing Industry Association (AMITH) said a larger devaluation would have been more helpful to textile manufacturers. "It was too small ... I don't even think we can call it a devaluation ... Firms in the sector saw their operating costs rise 10 percent last year," AMITH head Abdelali Berrada said. The textile and clothing sector accounts for one third of Moroccan exports. Brokers said the devaluation could have a negative impact on some banks, such as BNDE and CIH , which have foreign currency debts as well as manufacturers who must import raw materials.
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=988201812nL25161085
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Moroccan craftsmen pledge to protect children's rights.
Culture, 4/23/2001
Moroccan craftsmen pledged to guarantee and protect the rights to education, medicare and leisure of the children working in their workshops. This came under an agreement signed in Marrakesh Saturday by secretary of state to the minister of social economy, small and medium enterprises and handicraft, Abdelkrim Benatik, and presidents of the chambers of handicraft of Marrakesh, Safi, Meknes, Tangiers and Sale. The craftsmen pledged to allow the working children to attend informal education courses at the rate of five hours a week without any cuts on their salaries, to benefit from medicare at the level of prevention and treatment and to enjoy entertainment and leisure activities. They also vowed to limit the hiring of little children and to actively participate in movements initiated in Morocco in favor of children. The signing ceremony, chaired by Princess Lalla Meriem, Sister to King Mohammed VI and chairwoman of the national observatory for children's rights, was attended by the African First Ladies participating in the summit, held in Marrakesh April 20-22 under the topic "the little Girl, a Global Movement for Africa's Development."
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010423/2001042321.html
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Morocco Tries to Improve Status of Women.
Reuters/ RABAT
Morocco's King Mohammed on Friday set up a commission to try to improve the status of women in this North African male-dominated society. "His Majesty King Mohammed set up today the consultative commission in charge of reforming the Moudawana (family code)," a government official told Reuters. The king also named Driss Dahak, president of the Moroccan supreme court, as head of the commission, the official said. An official ceremony was held at the royal palace of Fez, 124 miles north of Rabat, in the presence of the king's advisers and members of the commission which include Muslim scholars and university professors, he said. The official quoted the monarch as saying that the commission should observe a balance between Islamic law principles and women's demands for urgent reforms. "The reform of Moudawana aims to guarantee the rights of women at the same level of men...and preserve the cohesion and solidarity of the family and reinforce the authentic (Islamic) Moroccan traditions," the king was quoted as telling the commission which includes three women. Earlier this year, a U.S. state Department report said that women in Morocco are "still victims of legal discrimination." Since its appointment by the late King Hassan in March 1998, the Socialist-led cabinet of Prime Minister Abderrahmane El Youssoufi has tried to reform the Moudawana to advance women's rights. But conservative groups have opposed the reforms, especially more controversial elements such as reform of women's legal status in marriage and family law issues. Last March, about half a million young bearded men and veiled women demonstrated in the economic capital Casablanca to protest against the government's plans to reform the Moudawana.
http://www.latimes.com/wires/winternat/20010427/tCB00a8341.html
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Morocco cuts 2001 GDP growth forecast to 7.0 pct
RABAT, April 26 (Reuters) - Morocco has cut its forecast for growth this year to 7.0 percent, down one percentage point, due to drought effects on the agriculture-based economy, Finance
Minister Fathallah Oualalou said on Thursday. "We have revised our forecast over GDP growth due mainly to dry weather which recently affected the agriculture sector in some areas ... GDP will stand at around 7.0 percent by end 2001," Oualalou told a news conference. He said foreign reserves jumped 44 percent to 75.8 billion dirhams ($6.6 billion) in the first quarter compared with the same period in 2000 thanks to the sale of a 35 percent stake in national telecoms operator Maroc Telecom. Commenting on the reason behind Wednesday's five percent devaluation of the dirham, Oualalou called it a "readjustment" of the parity and said the Moroccan economy was not ready for a full convertibility of its currency. ($1= 11.412 Moroccan dirhams)
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=988306312nL26252710
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Rabat enregistre un déficit commercial de 990 millions D.US.
Panafrican News Agency (Dakar) April 27, 2001
Le déficit commercial du Maroc a atteint 990 millions de dollars au premier trimestre 2001, contre 811 millions au cours de la même période de l'année 2000, soit une aggravation de 22 pour cent, a-t-on appris vendredi, auprès de l'Office des Changes à Rabat. L'aggravation du déficit commercial du Maroc est due à une augmentation des importations (+4,8 pour cent) et un recul des exportations (-2 pour cent), relève-t-on dans le dernier bulletin d'information de l'Office des Changes. Les importations sont passées de 2,865 milliards de dollars durant le premier trimestre 2000 à 3,003 milliards à fin mars 2001, alors que les exportations ont régressé de 2,053 milliards de dollars à 20,12 milliards, soit un taux de couverture de 67 pour cent contre 71,7 pour cent.
La hausse des importations est imputable aux achats hors pétrole. La facture pétrolière a enregistré un allégement de 21,7 pour cent pour se chiffrer à 291 millions de dollars, sous l'effet notamment du fléchissement du prix moyen qui est passé de 206,9 dollars/ tonne à 199,1 dollars/t. La facture des demi-produits importés a augmenté de 100 millions de dollars (+17,9 pour cent), celle des produits alimentaires de 63,01 millions (+18,5 pour cent) et celle des biens de consommation de 40,34 millions (+6,3 pour cent). Le recul des exportations est imputable essentiellement aux produits alimentaires dont les ventes à l'étranger sont passées de 544 millions de dollars à 358 millions, soit un recul de 34,2 pour cent. La baisse a touché les produits de la mer (170 millions contre 290 millions) et les produits agricoles (130 millions contre 220 millions). La part des produits de la mer dans les exportations totales a reculé de 14,1 pour cent au 1er trimestre 2000 à seulement 8,5 pour cent en 2001 et celle des produits agricoles de 9,8 pour cent à 6,8 pour cent. Parmi les produits dont les exportations ont augmenté, il y a les phosphates et dérivés (+24,1 pour cent), les produits électriques et électroniques (+22,4 pour cent) et les textiles et cuirs (+10,3 pour cent), selon les chiffres provisoires de l'Office des Changes. Les exportations des textiles et du cuir, qui se sont chiffrées à 765 millions de dollars, ont vu leur part dans le total exporté passer de 33,8 pour cent à fin mars 2000 à 38 pour cent à fin mars 2001 et celles des phosphates et dérivés (311 millions de dollars) ont vu la leur propulsée de 15,2 pour cent à 19,2 pour cent.
http://209.225.9.134/stories/200104270525.html
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Morocco-WB talks on anti-poverty struggle.
Economics, 4/21/2001
Morocco's efforts to fight poverty were surveyed at a meeting held here Friday between Moroccan employment and social development minister, Abbas Al-Fassi, and World Bank (WB) Operation Director for the Middle-East and North Africa, Ms. Ngozi Okongo Iweala. The two sides assessed Morocco's efforts to fight poverty through job generating and vocational training. The WB official voiced satisfaction over the transparency with which Morocco is tackling all development-related issues.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010421/2001042116.html
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Children's Summit Ends In Marrakech.
ExpoTimes (Freetown), April 23, 2001 Orando Yanquoi, Accra, Ghana
A Summit of African First Ladies on Global Movement for children in Marrakech, Morocco ended yesterday (SundayApril 22).The summit, which is deliberating on matters affecting the movement of children globally, lasted 3 days. Analysts see this move as a new initiative with the view of attracting the world's attention to the Unite Nations General Assembly Special Summit on Children, which is scheduled for September this year, to review the progress of the movement towards improving the lives of children in the past 10 years since its inception. The program of activities at the summit whose theme: "The Little Girl: Global Movement For Development In Africa," includes an organized visit to a Training Center for rural young girls and other development projects in Marakesh. The summit deliberation also touched on the recent Slave Children ordeal in the West African State of Benin. The Executive Director of the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Mrs. Carol Belay addressed the summit, which is being hosted by Her Royal Highness, Princess Lalli Meryen, First Lady of Morocco. For Madam Theresa Kufuor, Ghana's First Lady, the trip to the summit is her first Official assignment since her assumption of office in January this year.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200104230042.html
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African First Ladies' Summit Adopts Marrakesh Declaration.
MARRAKESH - The summit of African First ladies, held in Marrakesh April 20-22 under the topic "the little Girl, a Global Movement for Africa's Development" wound up proceedings Sunday with the adoption of the Marrakesh Declaration. The African First Ladies pledged to uphold the promotion, protection and consecration of the African little girl, part of a global movement for the development of the continent and stressed the need, to fulfil this goal, to sensitize political decision-makers, governmental officials and all activists operating in children-related fields. They called for the eradication of all forms of gender-based discrimination and for a general mobilization to promote schooling and struggle against illiteracy which is still highly affecting little girls in the continent. They also called for guaranteeing access to medical care, promoting reproductive health and fostering awareness to the danger of Aids.
http://www.map.co.ma/english/dispatches/national_news.htm
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First Ladies Undertake to Protect the Girl-Child's Rights.
April 23, 2001 Rabat, Morocco
African first ladies, meeting in Marrakech, 320 km south of Rabat, Sunday said they were committed to protecting and defending the development and recognition of the girl-child's rights in Africa. At the end of their two-day summit the ladies adopted a Marrakech Declaration, which stressed on the need for continued sensitisation of policymakers, authorities and all those involved in the development of girl-child. The declaration called for the eradication of all forms of discrimination based on sex, and a general mobilisation for the development and generalisation of education and the fight against illiteracy which primarily affects the girl-child. The first ladies recommended the intensification of efforts to facilitate girls' access to quality education and called for a guarantee of equality in accessing health care, and the promotion of reproductive health that would result in better awareness of and protection against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. They also called for the intensification of efforts and acts undertaken at the legislative, social, educational, cultural and information levels with a view to eradicating sexual abuses and harmful traditional practices, particularly female genital mutilation, which they said undermined the physical and moral integrity of the girl-child. The declaration called for the fight against violence in the family, whose victims were essentially women and young girls. The document recommended the promotion of human rights by encouraging the integration of this subject in both formal and non-formal education programmes with a view to instituting a child's rights culture. The ladies believe that the recognition of the girl-child's rights is closely linked to efforts undertaken to eradicate child labour and trafficking, and the enrolment of young girls in armies as well as the formulation and implementation of social and economic development programmes and projects in favour of women.
The declaration also called on the media to be involved in launching appeals in favour of children, the strengthening of partnerships with NGOs and other civil society groups in favour of the children. The ladies undertook to institute the appropriate mechanisms to follow up the declaration adopted at the end of the summit. The purpose of the Marrakech meeting was to prepare for the World Summit on the Child scheduled for New York in September to define a 10-year strategy in favour of children based on the evolution of results realised over the past decade.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200104230167.html
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No Mad Cow nor Foot-and-Mouth case in Morocco
Agriculture, 4/26/2001
Morocco on Tuesday denied the existence of any mad cow or Foot-and-Mouth disease case among its livestock. Morocco has been shielded the disease, because the country's farmers do not use flesh-colored fodder, agriculture, rural development and water and forests minister, Ismael Alaoui told the parliament. The official also noted that the preventive measures enforced by Morocco since the early 1990's also helped avert the disease. He cited, in this connection, the ban on imports of animals from contaminated countries and of flesh-colored fodder. Regarding Foot-and-Mouth disease, the minister said up to now 60 percent of Moroccan bovines were vaccinated against the disease. Strict measures are also enforced to avert Foot-and-Mouth, he said, adding the authorities will stay watchful to this disease.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010426/2001042621.html
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Morocco hosts regional conference on human rights education.
Culture, 4/27/2001
Rabat is playing host to a regional conference on a strategy to promote human rights education in the Middle East, North Africa region. The conference, sponsored by the Amnesty International- Morocco section and the AI secretariat general, is meant to help AI sections in the region elaborate and promote programs on human rights education and prompt governmental officials adopt a policy integrating human rights principles and issues in schools syllabi. Opening the conference Thursday, Moroccan minister of human rights, Mohamed Aujjar, said Morocco is experiencing a human rights education program that will be generalized in the course of the coming academic year to all primary and secondary schools. Program Director of the Middle East/North Africa Program at the AI International Secretariat, June Ray, underlined the role of education to human rights in putting an end to the violation of basic rights, preventing conflicts eruption and preserving world peace.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010427/2001042720.html
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Morocco to enforce IT strategy, PM says.
Economics, 4/26/2001
Morocco said Tuesday it will implement a national strategy to integrate the country in the World information and knowledge society. Premier Youssoufi, who was addressing a symposium on the national strategy, lauded the meeting which helped shape the new information technology strategy that will help Morocco be well prepared to face the challenges posed by the new innovations.
Morocco will continue efforts to reform its IT sector and open it for more competition, pending the generalization of the IT use, Youssoufi said. He added that the government will democratize the use of Internet through ensuring a free access to it. The two-day symposium wound up its works with a prime recommendation to generalize information and communication technologies. Experts, who attended the meeting, called on the government to develop by 2005 a national IT industry through involving private operators, promoting infrastructure, enforcing a stronger liberalization and re-defining the state's role in the sector. In a message to the meeting, King Mohammed VI called on the government to train, by 2005, some 5000 medium and high executives in the field. He also instructed the government to convert 10,000 Holder of BA in Science into IT jobs. He insisted on the need to exploit the vast opportunities offered by the new information technologies, saying "it is our wish to ensure to our people a global and integrated development."
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010426/2001042622.html
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Morocco vies for world telecom body top post.
Local, 4/27/2001
Morocco has officially announced its candidacy for the top post of the International Telecommunications via Satellite Organization (ITSO). The announcement was made Thursday in Washington by Moroccan ambassador to the USA, Abdellah El Maaroufi, at the 26th general assembly of Intelsat, which set up ITSO last year. Intelsat, set up in 1965, musters 144 member countries. Ahmed Toumi, a telecom expert, will run for the post in the name of Morocco. In his address, the Moroccan diplomat highlighted the keen interest Morocco grants to the modernization and development of its telecom sector. Providing data on Morocco's telecom sector, El Maarouf said the country counted 1.5 million phone (fixed and mobile) subscribers in 1998, on the eve of the sector's liberalization. The figure jumped to 5 million in March 2001. Subscribers to digital cellular services number 3.5 million, he said.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010427/2001042722.html
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Morocco, Amnesty International sign cooperation accord.
Culture, 4/24/2001
The Moroccan human rights department and Amnesty International signed in Rabat Monday a cooperation accord to foster the awareness of authority agents in charge of enforcing laws to the importance of human rights. The convention, coming into effect as of the signing date, backs Morocco's educational programs related to human rights culture, the aim being to generalize this culture, to publicize the mechanisms for preserving human rights and to foster awareness to the dangers of human rights violation. Under the convention, human rights education will be extended not only to teachers and civil servants working in the sector but also to the civil servants in charge of enforcing laws such as magistrates, gendarmerie and police officers and jails staff, secretary general of Amnesty International-Morocco section told MAP. The Moroccan human rights ministry and AI pledge, under the convention, to set up a plan of action to implement the convention through a joint follow-up commission. The accord was signed by minister of human rights, Mohamed Aujjar, and AI secretary general Pierre Sane. Sane is visiting Morocco at the head of a high-ranking delegation that attended Saturday a ceremony during which Amnesty International-Morocco has been granted the status of Amnesty International section to mark the achievement made by its members in the field of promotion and protection of human rights. San? said this is a recognition of the know-how acquired by Amnesty International-Morocco Group in matters of human rights defense. The group is an integral part of the struggle waged by Moroccan human rights activist NGOs.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010424/2001042430.html
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Morocco gets 15 proposals for fixed telecom tender.
RABAT, April 20 (Reuters) - Fifteen foreign and local firms have made proposals to Morocco's telecom watchdog ANRT on how to liberalise the fixed line telephone network in 2002, ANRT said in a statement on Friday. It said that the next step will be a tender for the sale of licences, but gave no date for its launch. The companies which responded to the interest tender do not have exclusive rights to enter the tender for the sale of the licence, it added. The 15 firms included major telecoms companies, such as France Telecom and Alcatel and also Norway's Telenor , Finish telecom software firm Comptel and local operators Maroc Telecom and Meditelecom, a consortium led by Spain's Telefonica . The sector is under the monopoly of Maroc Telecom, in which Vivendi Universal holds 35 percent. Morocco opened up the cellular phone business to the private sector in 1999 with the sale of a GSM licence to Meditelecom for $1.1 billion.
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=987779168nL20507370
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Shots from Morocco's 'Four Feathers' Set .
April 25, 2001 7:09 CDT
An 'anonymous' source checked in this afternoon with several set pictures from Paramount's "Four Feathers," which stars Heath Ledger, Wes Bentley, Kate Hudson and Djimon Hounsou ("Gladiator," "Amistad"). The Shekhar Kapur-directed production has faced some harsh weather elements during filming, but is still tentatively scheduled for the Fall of 2001. The story follows a British officer who resigns from his post just before battle and therefore receives four white feathers from his friends and fiancee as symbols of what they believe to be his cowardice. Here are several shots from the Morocco set where they started filming last November and finished early this year...
http://www.comingsoon.net/cgi-bin/archive/fullnews.cgi?newsid988243757,27086,
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