FOM Newsletter July 2001
Morocco Week in Review
 July 21,  2001

RABAT - Some 242 women out of every 10,000 die while delivering their babies in Morocco, a human rights activist said. Such a high mother mortality rate is imputed to weak equipment and low human skill, especially in rural areas, Ms. Najat Akhich, secretary general of the Moroccan Democratic League of Women's Rights, deplored at a meeting in Azilal, a Moroccan Atlas mountain town.  The shortage of hospitals, health center and poor road infrastructures together with the low number of midwives are behind this situation, she added. The activist called on the authorities to general social and health coverage to all social layers and regions, especially the rural areas. Pregnant women, particularly in the country-side, need a special protection and need to be guaranteed security, she said.

Fourteen people were killed in 767 road accidents last week in different locations in Morocco. Another 979 people were injured, including 63 seriously, in the accidents attributed to excessive speed and failure to heed traffic laws.

Child Schooling rates will jump to 94 percent of all Moroccan children during in the coming academic year to start next September from 82 percent last year, the education department said Tuesday.  The authorities will continue efforts to develop schooling in rural areas, the department said, adding schooling in these zones currently stands at 77 percent of children.

RABAT, July 18 (Reuters) - The gap between Morocco's rich and poor inched down in the 1998/99 period compared to its level in the 1990-91 period, the state-run Statistics Directorate said on Wednesday. Morocco's Gini coefficient, an international measure of income quality, averaged at the end of the 1998/99 period 0.395 against 0.393 in 1990-91, the directorate said in a report on its website. The rate's level is slightly below the internationally recognized danger level. At the end of the 1998/99 period, the coefficient stood at 0.52 for Hong Kong, 0.45 for China, 0.47 for Africa and 0.49 for South America. The directorate in its study analyzed five groups which include 20 percent of the population each and ranked according to their income.

The first segment, which holds the poorest group, saw its share of total consumption inch down to 6.5 percent in the 1998/99 period from 6.6 percent in the 1990-91 period. In rural areas, the poorest group's consumption fell to 8.2 percent from 8.6 percent while in urban areas the rate improved slightly to 7.1 percent from 6.6 percent. The fifth group, the wealthiest, saw its share of national consumption rise to 46.6 percent from 46.2 percent. In urban areas, the group's consumption rose from 44.9 percent to 45.4 percent while in rural areas the rate fell to 39.8 percent from 40.1 percent. The third group, generally referring to the middle class, saw its share of national consumption fall from 15.2 percent to 14.9 percent.

RABAT, July 18 (Reuters) - Water levels in Morocco's dams averaged 58.1 percent of capacity at the end of May, up from 44.2 percent a year earlier, the equipment ministry said on Wednesday.  Average water levels at the start of April were 61.2 percent of capacity, the ministry said in a report. The country has been hit this year by drought but not as badly as in 2000. Morocco relies mainly on its 60 dams to irrigate around a sixth of its 5.6 million hectares of arable land. The total quantity of water contained in dams at the end of May stood at 8.1 billion cubic metres. The dams received during the September-May period 7.43 billion cubic metres of water from rainfall, around 33 percent lower than the average, the ministry added.

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

RABAT, July 16 (Reuters) - Morocco's total cereal stocks rose to 1.37 million tonnes in mid-June from 1.0 million at the end of April, due mainly to a rise in soft wheat stocks, state-run ONICL said on Monday.  The Office National Interprofessionnel des Cereales et Legumineuses (ONICL) said in a report soft wheat stocks stood at 1.05 million tonnes, up from 719,300 tonnes at end-April. At mid-June, durum wheat stocks stood at 119,400 tonnes, barley at 111,300 and maize at 84,100 tonnes. The office said total cereals imports from June 1 to June 15 totalled 300,000 tonnes, including 130,000 tonnes of soft wheat and 110,000 of maize. The import season runs from June to the end of May. A total of 220,000 tonnes of cereals is due to arrive in Moroccan ports, ONICL said. Morocco was expected to purchase 5.2 million tonnes of cereals from June 2000 to end-May 2001, of which 2.95 million would be soft wheat. Morocco is expected to harvest 4.56 million tonnes of cereals this season, sharply up from 1.8 million previously, officials have said.

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

Morocco allotted a budget of 315 million dirhams (nearly $ 27.4 million) to purchase drugs in 2001, Moroccan health minister, Thami Khyari, said.  The minister, who was speaking at a press conference, said his department has taken a package of measures to remedy the delay in supplying drugs to medical centers in different parts of the country. Khyari deplored the shortage in specialized physicians, noting the problem adversely impacts the launching of newly constructed medical centers.

The Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development has loaned Morocco $ 50 million to finance construction of a highway between Casablanca and Al-Jadida. The loan aims at building a seven-meter wide highway stretching for 79 kilometers and will cover constructions of bridges, tunnels, fences and buildings for custom department. The loan is to paid back in 22 years with a five-year grace period and at an annual interest of 4.5 percent.  The Fund's total loans to Morocco stand at around $ 1.719 billion.

RABAT - A new information technologies center for enterprises was created last week in Casablanca. The move is part of the drives made by the Moroccan government to sharpen the competitive edge of the country's firms and prepare them for the growing competition in world markets. The creation of the center is part of a larger program, said the trade and industry department, explaining that the program seeks mainly to increase the firms technological potential.

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