FOM Newsletter July 2001
Morocco Week in Review
 July 14,  2001

The US state department canceled this Friday a call for vigilance launched for its citizens in Morocco following further evaluation regarding possible terrorist actions in Morocco. A statement by the state department, released this Friday, says "the public announced for Morocco of July 9, 2001 is hereby cancelled following further evaluation of the information regarding possible terrorist actions in Morocco." On Thursday, a Moroccan official source has termed as "baseless" the warning issued by the United States to its citizens in Morocco to increase safety and security measures for fear of presumed terrorist activities.  Morocco does not understand the nature of such a warning, the source told the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat daily.  Another "high ranking" Moroccan security source denied in statements to local Al-Ahdat Al-Maghribya daily, the existence of any threats against American interests nor against those of any other country in Morocco.  Information on these threats are purely sensational, said the source.

RABAT - King Mohammed VI on Friday inspected a literacy center in the northern city of Tangiers.  The Sovereign was briefed on the results of exams taken by elderly pupils. The success rate stood at 47.24 percent for men and 52.76 for women. He also heard explanation on next year's program part of which literacy courses will given to 10,000 people. Morocco is currently staging a nation-wide campaign to struggle against illiteracy.

RABAT - More than 6000 villages, mustering 600,000 households, were electrified at the end of 2000, Moroccan Premier Abderrahmane Youssoufi, said on Wednesday. The number of villages connected to the national power grid tripled in 2000 compared to 1999, Youssoufi told the governing board of the Moroccan power company (ONE-state-owned).

RABAT, July 11 (Reuters) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) will loan 910 million dirhams ($77.3 million) to finance a 450-megawatt power plant in Morocco, state-run power utility ONE said on Wednesday. The plant, which is being built by a consortium led by French engineering and transport group Alstom at Afourer, in the central area of Beni Mellal, is expected to be operational by the end of 2004, the Office National de l'Electricite (ONE) said in a statement. The plant, which will be integrated into the giant Bin El Ouidane dam, is considered among "Morocco's most economic energy projects," ONE added. Since 1984, the BEI has financed several energy projects in Morocco worth more than $200 million. ($1= 11.770 Moroccan dirhams)

(Rabat newsroom, +212-37 720065 fax +212-37 722499, rabat.newsroom@reuters.com))

RABAT, July 9 (Reuters) - Moroccan Berber activists said on Monday they were victims of institutional repression after a French newspaper article about them failed to appear in editions published locally. The Amazigh Manifesto Committee (CMA) said in a statement it "vigorously condemned the repressive policy we continuously face", saying it was aimed at "stifling the Berber movement".  The CMA was set up last March after one million people signed a manifesto calling for official recognition of the Berber language and preservation of Berbers' cultural heritage. Last month, its members were barred from meeting to decide on the creation of a body to campaign for their rights. The July 5 issue of the Paris newspaper Le Figaro hit local newsstands on Friday without an article headlined: "The timid awakening of Moroccan Berbers".  It was replaced by a full-page advertisement for a French property magazine. The article focused on Moroccan Berber activists and their fears of social unrest similar to that affecting neighboring Algeria if their demands were not met by the government. A senior government official said the government had not banned or censored Le Figaro and the newspaper's printing house in Casablanca attributed the change to technical problems. Berbers, who lived in North Africa before the Arab invasion in the seventh century, represent the majority of Morocco's population of 30 million, according to independent sources, but tend to be poorer than the Arab minority and less represented in political life. In Algeria, violent street protests have hit the Berber-speaking Kabylie region for the past two months with youths clashing with police almost daily.

RABAT, July 11 (Reuters) - Foreign investments in Morocco reached a record $4.8 billion in the 28 months up to April 2001, thanks to a better legal and institutional environment for investors, Finance Minister Fathallah Oualaloua said on Wednesday. "Morocco is top of the list among countries in the Mediterranean which attract large foreign investors because of its political stability and good environment for investment," he told a news conference. The minister gave no comparative figures and did not explain why he chose the January 1999-April 2001 period. The present socialist-led government took office in March 1998. Morocco, which is in a process of anchoring its economy to the European Union market, has attracted large European groups, Oualalou said. He mentioned France's hotels group Accor and media giant Vivendi Universal .  Vivendi last December paid $2.2 billion for 35 percent of state-run telecoms operator Maroc Telecom. "In 1999 and 2000, total foreign investment in Morocco stood at 31 billion dirhams, of which the telecoms sector held a lion's share of 59 percent," the minister said. A consortium led by Spain's Telefonica purchased a Moroccan GSM mobile phone licence for $1.1 billion in 1999. "With the liberalisation of our economy, the weight of European investment is becoming very important ... Morocco has adapted well to this situation," Oualalou said. 

In April, the North African country devalued its currency by five percent against the dollar in order, government officials said, to adapt the structure of the dirham's basket to Morocco's commercial and financial foreign exchanges, mainly with Europe. Morocco signed in 1996 a free-trade zone agreement with the EU, which will be effective from 2012.  The EU is Morocco's main trading partner, accounting for two thirds of its foreign trade. In the 1999-2000 period, France was the main investor with 5.5 billion dirhams, or 17.7 percent of total investments, finance ministry figures showed. It was followed by Spain, Portugal and Saudi Arabia. The Saudi group Dallah al-Baraka is conducting a feasibility study to build a leisure complex in the southern city of Agadir with an investment of 1.0 billion dirhams, Oualalou said. Other projects in the tourism sector will be launched soon by investors from Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates in other parts of Morocco, he added. He gave no date.

The telecoms sectors and the electronics industry have also attracted "strategic investment estimated at 23 billion dirhams between 1999 and 2000," the minister said. Seeing "a potential for growth" in these two sectors, he mentioned Siemens , Ericsson and S.T Microelectronics among foreign groups well established in Morocco and planning to expand their investments in the future.

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