FOM Newsletter October 2001
Morocco Week in Review
 October 13,  2001

RABAT, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Morocco is spending 6.44 billion dirhams ($575.7 million) to develop building plots for 36 new hotels with around 7,000 rooms in the main tourist city of Marrakesh, a senior finance ministry official said on Monday. The official said King Mohammed launched the works for the development of two large building plots covering an area of 550 hectares in the southern red-walled city. "(State-run pension fund) Caisse de Depot et de Gestion (CDG) is leading the project for now... but it might get some funds from the King Hassan development fund," the official who declined to be named said. The King Hassan Fund is a state body financed mainly from receipts of privatisation operations. The two plots, Agdal and Chrifia, cover respectively an area of 80 and 470 hectares, he said. The development of Agdal and the building of seven hotels with 1,500 rooms and two villa-hotels with 160 villas would cost 1.48 billion dirhams, he said. A total amount of 4.96 billion dirhams would be spent in the development of Chrifia plot and the building of 23 hotels with 5,450 rooms and four villa-hotels with 200 villas, it added.

The projected hotels would employ 5,000 jobs and create 25,000 indirect jobs. The official gave no further details.  Morocco received 2.5 million foreign visitors last year and aims to quadruple the figure by 2010 by investing $5.2 billion in new resort, which would add 140,000 beds to the existing 90,000.  Tourism receipts are the north African country's main hard currency earning sector. They rose 39.3 percent at the end of the January-July period this year to reach around $1.5 billion.

(Souhail Karam, Rabat newsroom, +212-37 720065 fax +212-37 722499, rabat.newsroom@reuters.com) ($1=11.194 Moroccan dirhams)

Casablanca will host next Saturday an information encounter on a memo submitted by 20 Moroccan non-governmental organizations for women political and decision-making empowerment. The memo comprises draft amendments to the electoral code meant to guarantee women representation in electoral mandates and positions. The signatories deem that a minimum quota of 33% of women candidacies to elections will be recommended, but taking into account women's weak involvement in politics, it could be envisioned that the law sets as an eligibility condition for a list to be accepted to include at least 20% of women. They also propose that this should be supported by financial perks for political parties who would submit 33% of women to elections. In addition to proposals to reform the voting system in Morocco, the memo also wants to ban the cumulating of offices and the limiting of electoral mandates to two successive ones.  The memo further proposes to adopt a parity system for men and women with the same skills for executive and decision-making positions at recruitment at Moroccan administrations and the creation of an observatory of gender equality and parity to reduce inequalities in women's access to executive positions. The role of the media in ensuring a better visibility of women, and the role of political parties, trade unions and professional chambers in contributing to guarantee a wider participation in their activities was also underscored by the memo. The document signed by twenty women, human rights and other non-governmental organizations was developed in collaboration with the United Nations.

Morocco and the United States signed on Wednesday an open skies agreement, regulating future trade relations in civil aviation between the two countries and aimed at promoting U.S. tourism to Morocco. U.S. ambassador to Morocco Margaret Tutwiler and Moroccan minister of transportation and merchant navy Abdeslam Zenined signed the agreement that comes to replace an older one signed in 1970. Since the agreement was initialed by Minister Znined and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater on October 11, 2000, in Washington, DC, Delta Air Lines and Royal Air Maroc have entered into codeshare agreements to serve a number of points in the United States, including New York, Boston, Miami, and San Francisco. Delta also provides service to both Casablanca and Rabat through codeshares with Air France. Northwest Airlines has also started codeshare service into Casablanca with KLM. The agreement establishes a new air transport relationship between the United States and Morocco, replacing the existing 1970 U.S.-Morocco bilateral aviation agreement. Open Skies agreements permit unrestricted air service by the airlines of both countries between and beyond the other's territory, eliminating restrictions on how often the carriers can fly, the kind of aircraft they use and the prices they charge. It also provides for full liberalization of scheduled and charter combination and all-cargo services over a five-year transition period. The United States has now reached Open Skies agreements with over fifty partners in Africa, Asia and the pacific, Europe, Latin American and the Caribbean, and the Middle East. Morocco is the first Maghreb country to sign an Open Skies agreement with the Unites States. 

The US ambassador said the accord would enable U.S. airlines Northwest and Delta to make reservations for passengers to Moroccan destinations and encourage their frequent flyer programs. She also underlined Royal Air Maroc's strong record on security, and recalled that RAM meets all safety and security requirements imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).  She also highlighted the importance this agreement will play in fulfilling the U.S.-North Africa Economic Partnership (Eizenstat Initiative) goal of increasing trade and investment between the United States and Morocco, stating "The agreement creates opportunities for strengthening the economic partnership between the United States and Morocco through closer links in transport, trade and tourism." The Moroccan transport and merchant navy minister said the agreement is part of Morocco's air liberalization policy initiated in 1997. He added this policy has adopted as a cornerstone the upgrading of civil aviation capacities and competitiveness enabling it to develop its infrastructure and human resources. He cited, in this regard, the creation of top training centers in Morocco.

The Moroccan health ministry is staging two nationwide immunization campaigns for women in procreating age and children against several diseases such as tuberculosis, diphtheria, polio, measles, tetanus, whooping cough, and hepatitis B. The campaigns to run October 14-18 and November 12-16 target to immunize 2.8 million children aged below 5 years against polio, 250,000 children against the other killer diseases and over 1 million women in procreating age against tetanus to protect newborns against neonatal tetanus. The ministry will be using 4,700 medical teams comprising 16,600 health professionals and 2,200 vehicles. The campaigns were launched in 1987 and have up to date brought the immunization coverage to 90% of children and have helped eradicate polio. Health minister, Thami El Khyari, deplored however that the World Health Organization has failed to deliver Morocco the polio-eradication world certificate and announced that the kingdom will present its candidacy next November at a WHO regional meeting. The novelty of this year's campaign will be the generalization of the health register to all newborns, an operation jointly sponsored by the Mohammed V solidarity foundation -chaired by King Mohammed VI- and the Moroccan organization for childhood- chaired by princess Lalla Meryem, the sovereign's sister.

Health and high education departments sign partnership convention for health coverage of students.

Morocco's ministries of health and of higher education, executives training and scientific research signed on Thursday a partnership convention to secure health coverage to university students. Under the convention, the department of higher education, executives training and scientific research will be in charge of the maintenance of universityhealth centers and supply them with furniture and medical-technical equipment. It also undertakes, under the convention, to ensure adequate working conditions to the medical teams in universities. The health department will follow-up implementation of activities set by national university health program and facilitate the admission into public hospitals of all students sent by university health centers.

Morocco's Government to Present Report on Poverty in Morocco At International Forum on Urban Poverty.

RABAT- The Moroccan government will present an objective report on the state of poverty in Morocco at the 4th international forum on urban poverty, to be held this October 16-19 in Marrakesh. The forum is held by the Moroccan government and the United nations Human Settlement Center.  Over 400 participants representing regional and international organizations, the civil society, in addition to international figures from Africa, America, Asia, and the Arab world are expected. It will offer opportunity to assess states' policies and actions by urban partners.  The forum was proposed during the 1st international conference of urban poverty, held by the UN human settlements center in Recife (Brazil) in 1996. Later in 1997, the 2nd conference held in Florence (Italy) officially launched the forum as a network for institutions and programs working in urban poverty. The 3rd conference was held in Nairobi in 1999.

RABAT- Moroccan inventor Abdeslam Benghazi has developed a new process to retain water on farmland, using sawdust and rice ban. The technique, set to revolutionize the agriculture sector as it fights drought and spares water, consists in sowing a mixture of sawdust and rice bran in arable land. The mixture retains water for about eight months and avoids its infiltration underground.  Benghazi has won awards at several world invention forums for his culinary inventions, mainly his oat-couscous and barley-couscous that regulate cholesterol rates and his rice-couscous that is already marketed in Morocco as well as in France, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia. The young inventor is now exploring another branch, that of cosmetics. He is conducting research on products to stop hair thinning and baldness and combat wrinkles.

RABAT, Morocco (AP) -- Morocco's King Mohammed VI is engaged and will marry one of his subjects early next year, the royal house said in a statement released Friday. Mohammed, 38, is to marry Salma Bennani, a native of Fez, the statement said. It said the decision was made at the royal palace on Friday. "The ministry of the royal house of protocol and chancellery announces to the Moroccan people the good news of the engagement of the Commander of Believers, his majesty the King Mohammed VI, may God keep him, to Miss Salma Bennani," the statement said. It mentioned no previous marriage. When Mohammad inherited the throne in 1999, government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said he was secretly married hours after his father's death to fulfill dynastic tradition requiring a head of state be wed.  They did not identify the bride, and Friday's statement marked the first time that a Moroccan ruler has officially expressed plans to marry or announced the identity of his fiancee.  Bennani has worked for Omnium Nord-Africain, one of the North African kingdom's largest companies. The statement did not reveal her age or any other details about her.

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