FOM Newsletter May 2001
Morocco Week in Review
 May 19 ,  2001

Nine out of 10 adult Moroccans are affected by cavities and two out of every three 12-year-old children suffer from toothache, according to a recent epidemiological study. The study points out that sensitization of the population to oral hygiene has become more indispensable in Morocco, in view of the huge number of people with cavities. This situation has led Morocco's Public Health Minister to include oral hygiene among his ministry's top priorities. Morocco is said to be among countries where toothpaste is least used. The annual consumption per inhabitant is over 10 times lower than world consumption. Every year an awareness campaign is organized in various regions of the Moroccan kingdom as part of a national oral hygiene programme which started in 1991.  The aim of the campaign, jointly carried out by the ministries of health, national education and a multinational toothpaste manufacturing company, is to sensitize and educate school children on oral hygiene. The campaign includes a documentary film show and cartoons on the principles of oral hygiene.

Nine out of 10 adult Moroccans are affected by cavities and two out of every three 12-year-old children suffer from toothache, according to a recent epidemiological study. The study, whose results were released on the occasion of an oral hygiene campaign in Moroccan schools last week, points out that sensitization of the population to oral hygiene has become more indispensable in Morocco, in view of the huge number of people with cavities. This situation has led the Moroccan Public Health Ministry to include oral hygiene among the department's top priorities. The study showed that Morocco is among countries where toothpaste is least used. The annual consumption per inhabitant is over 10 times lower than world consumption. Every year an awareness campaign is staged in various regions of the Moroccan kingdom as part of a national oral hygiene program which started in 1991. The aim of the campaign, jointly carried out by the ministries of health, national education and a multinational toothpaste manufacturing company, is to sensitize and educate school children on oral hygiene. The campaign includes a documentary film show and cartoons on the principles of oral hygiene. This year's campaign targeted 3 million children.

A large number of Moroccan pharmacies risk to go bankrupt because of the decrease in their annual sales, warned Abdelkerim Alaoui, head of the Moroccan regional council of chemists of the south. The professional imputed to the situation to weakness of the citizens' purchasing power, the lack of medical coverage and the increase of taxes.  Alaoui called on the authorities to act for protecting the sector and allow it play its social and economic role. Morocco is currently able to ensure its medicines self-sufficiency at 80 percent and exports part of its output to certain developed countries, like Japan and Switzerland. The professional, who deplored that the sector is still governed by laws dating back to 40 years, said the pharmacies field should be restructured to keep pace with the increasing developments world-wide.

A new AIDS prevention and treatment center was opened Friday in Kelaat Seraghna, a town near Marrakesh. The 25-bed center, the second in Morocco, will offer confidential and free diagnosis to 94,323 HIV and STD-infected patients. The center, built over 600 square meters, will also wage awareness campaigns. The project cost more than 1.3 million Dirhams (more than $ 130,000).

RABAT, May 17 (Reuters) - Morocco expects its total cereals output to rise by 152 percent in the 2000-2001 campaign, after a major shortfall caused by drought in the previous two campaigns, a government official said on Thursday. The official told Reuters cereals output is expected to stand at 46.56 million quintals (4.65 million tonnes), compared with 1.8 million tonnes in the 1999-2000 campaign. Soft wheat production is seen at 2.44 million tonnes, while barley and durum wheat outputs are forecast to reach 1.21 million tonnes and 0.99 million tonnes respectively. "Total cereals production for this year is 7.7 percent lower than the average annual production of the last five years," the official said. The North African country is one of the world's main cereals importers. Its 30-million population consumes between six and seven million tonnes of cereals each year. An earlier government cereals output forecast was put at 6.5 million tonnes after early and well distributed rainfall, but the estimate was later reduced to 5.0 million tonnes after six weeks of dry weather in March and early April. Agriculture accounts for around 18 percent of Morocco's $36-billion gross domestic product (GDP) and employs half of its 10.6 million workforce. The official added that domestic gross agricultural output was expected to rise by 30 percent from last year. The GDP growth estimate was reduced from eight to seven percent last month after the preliminary forecast showing cereals production at around 5.0 million tonnes.

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

RABAT, May 18 (Reuters) - Morocco has cut its forecast for economic growth this year one percentage point to 6.0 percent, due mainly to the effects of drought on its agriculture-based economy, the finance ministry said on Friday. It is the second time that the ministry has revised its 2001 growth forecast. Earlier this year, the ministry said GDP was expected to grow by 8.0 percent due to a good cereals harvest. But it revised its forecast in April to seven percent after the first preliminary estimate of the harvest. Morocco's GDP stood at 365 billion dirhams ($31.4 billion) in 2000, official figures showed. Morocco sees its cereals harvest at 4.65 million tonnes in 2001, down from a predicted 6.5 million tonnes. The agriculture sector accounts for some 20 percent of GDP and employs half the 10.6 million workforce. The economy is expected to grow by an average 5.0 percent of GDP in 2002, the ministry said but did not elaborate. The new figures were released after the agriculture ministry informed a cabinet meeting of the situation in the agriculture sector at mid-May, a government official said. "Despite the effects of drought on the eastern and southern agricultural areas, Morocco's economy will continue to grow thanks to the state investments and added value from other sectors such as telecoms and industry," the official said. Up to six billion dirhams will be invested in the construction of infrastructure such as roads, ports and agriculture in 2001/2002, he said. Inflation and the budget deficit are expected at less than three percent in 2001 and 2002, he said. The government of Socialist Prime Minister Abderrahmane El Youssoufi has already started the preparation of the 2002 draft budget, he said. The draft will focus on continuing the privatization of state-run telecoms operator Maroc Telecom and largest Banque Centrale Populaire (BCP), he added. Morocco last year sold a stake of 35 percent in Maroc Telecom to French Vivendi Universal for $2.2 billion. It plans to float on local and foreign stock exchanges up to 14 percent of Maroc Telecom capital in 2002. The government also plans to privatize a dozen firms in the next few years, including airline Royal Air Maroc, CIH Bank BNDE bank and tobacco firm Regie des Tabacs. ($1= 11.618 Moroccan Dirhams)

Moroccan draftsmen are rewriting the country's law to enhance suppression of acts of forgery, an official source disclosed Tuesday. According to the source, the improved legislation would provide for prison terms of between a month and two years, depending on the seriousness of the offence, and fines ranging between 5,000 and 50,000 US dollars. Previously, fines for forgery in Morocco did not exceed 300 dollars. Under the draft amendment, forgery is defined as "any illegal act committed by a third party following illicit use or fraudulent imitation of an industrial property deed (patent, trademark, industrial design or model) protected or belonging to someone else". The law also provides for seizure of imported goods bearing a forged trademark or brand name. The Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, in cooperation with transnationals operating in Morocco, have launched an awareness campaign on the dangers of forgery, targeting traders in business centers of the kingdom, mainly the economic capital Casablanca.

RABAT: Morocco will bid to host the 2010 World Cup football Finals to be held for the first time in Africa, a Royal Palace statement said on Monday. The statement, carried by the official MAP news agency, said the decision was taken by King Mohammed at a meeting on Monday attended by Youth and Sports Minister Ahmed Moussaoui and top sports officials. Morocco made bids to host the World Cup Finals in 1994, 1998 and 2006, but the tournaments were awarded by football's world governing body FIFA to the United States, France and Germany. The North African country's failures were blamed on poor infrastructure. For its last failed attempt, Morocco said it planned to invest over US$500 million to build new stadiums. FIFA president Sepp Blatter said last month Africa would "definitely" host the 2010 World Cup. South Africa, narrowly and controversially beaten by Germany in the vote for the 2006 tournament, confirmed in March that it would mount its second bid for the Finals. Egypt, Nigeria and Tunisia have also expressed an interest in hosting the tournament in nine years' time. The Royal Palace statement said the king "reiterated his confidence in Driss Benhima, appointing him vice-chairman of the national committee in charge of the Moroccan bid for the World Cup," it said.--Reuters

RABAT, May 15 (Reuters) - Morocco has tendered for fiscal and legal studies for the liberalization of its tobacco sector, marking the start of the privatization of the monopoly. The finance ministry set a June 20 deadline for the submission of offers in a statement published on its website. A senior ministry official told Reuters the tenders were the first step of the privatization process of state-run monopoly Regie des Tabacs, which generates an annual 8.5 billion dirhams ($729.4 million) turnover. "The studies will set the timetable and the mechanism of the (privatization) process," he said. The Socialist-led government two years ago launched a large-scale study on the liberalization of the sector, led by U.S. Arthur Andersen Co. The official was not able to comment on the results of that study. Established in 1910, Regie has a capital of 600 million dirhams, employs 2,500 people and operates five factories. The firm also contributes to around 6.5 billion dirhams in receipts to the public treasury and posted 715 million dirhams profit in 1999. Morocco's population of 29 million consumes around 16 billion cigarettes per year with an average four percent annual growth in sales. ($1= 11.653 Moroccan dirhams)

French group Accor intends to invest 60 million US dollars in construction of a 1,300-bed tourist club in the Agadir tourist resort, 600 km south of Rabat, the daily L'Economiste reported on Tuesday. The proposed tourist club will be built on 10 hectares of seafront and will comprise 500 rooms and 199 apartments, in line with the group's new concept. The new facility, to be known as Coralia Club, will include a thalassotherapy with a 120-member capacity, three restaurants and a night club. Accor group operates in several Moroccan cities and it envisages to reach a capacity of 7,000 rooms by 2004. The group presently has 17 hotels with a total capacity of 2,408 rooms and employs 1,500 people. In 2000, Accor's turnover in Morocco stood at 55.7 million US dollars, an increase of over 10 percent on the previous year's figure.

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