FOM Newsletter September 2001
Morocco Week in Review
 September 1,  2001

Morocco's health minister calls for increasing US investments in pharmaceutics
Japan extends over $ 100,000 to rural Morocco
Morocco H1 tourism receipts up 45 pct at $1.16 bln
Morocco's H1 trade gap rises 8.1 pct to $2.12 bln
UNDP sets up trust fund to finance Marrakesh climate talks
Britain to launch vast trade campaign in Morocco
Morocco to Exceed $ 3 Bln in Foreign Investments in 2001, King Mohammed VI Says.
Morocco's June CPI index flat.
Morocco not to devalue dirham again Rabat 
Morocco calls to fight illegal immigration

Morocco's health minister calls for increasing US investments in pharmaceutics

Morocco's health minister, Thami El Khyari, stressed at a meeting with US ambassador, Margaret Tutwiller, the need to increase US investments in Moroccan pharmaceutical industry. After reviewing the excellent relations between Morocco and the USA, the Moroccan official and the US diplomat reviewed the help that the USA can bring to Morocco and the need to increase US investments in Morocco, particularly in pharmaceutical industry. The meeting surveyed various fields of action of the USAID and cooperation between the health ministry and US non-governmental organizations.

RABAT, August 25 -- Japan granted on Friday a donation of 1.24 million DH (US$ 109,000) to Moroccan associations undertaking social projects in rural areas. The donation will go to financing a well solar-pumping system to supply drinking water and fitting an electric group for 650 inhabitants of a village near Ouarzazate. A similar pumping system will also be installed for the irrigation of 400 ha of olive trees for the benefit of 150 families. Two associations will use the donations to purchase ambulances for isolated communities of 12,000 inhabitants and 14,000 inhabitants. - Morocco Today

RABAT, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Morocco earned 13.08 billion dirhams ($1.16 billion) from tourism in the January-June period of 2001, up 45 percent from the same period last year, a senior government official said on Wednesday. Tourism earnings in the first six months of 2000 were 9.02 billion dirhams, he said. Morocco received 2.5 million foreign visitors last year and aims for four times that number by 2010. It is investing $5.2 billion in six seaside resorts.

RABAT, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Morocco's trade deficit in the first half of 2001 rose to 23.9 billion dirhams ($2.12 billion), up 8.1 percent from the same period last year, a senior official at the trade regulatory body said on Wednesday. "Exports shrank 3.4 percent in value to 37.92 billion dirhams while imports inched up to 61.88 billion dirhams," the official from the state-run Office des Changes said. The drop in exports stemmed mainly from a 22.3 percent decrease in foodstuff exports, notably seafood, citrus and tomatoes, he said. "The share of foodstuff goods from our total exports fell to 18.4 percent at the end of the first half from 22.9 percent a year earlier," he said. Clothing and leather exports, however, rose 7.6 percent to 14.74 billion dirhams and phosphates and by-products exports increased 6.0 percent to 6.18 billion dirhams. Semi-processed goods imports rose 18.3 percent in value to 13.28 billion dirhams and foodstuff imports rose 7.9 percent to 7.67 billion dirhams. The energy imports bill, however, shrank 10.1 percent to 7.1 billion dirhams which the official explained by a 13 percent fall in the quantity of crude imported.  The cover ratio of imports to exports at the end of the January-June period stood at 61.3 percent from 63.9 percent a year earlier.

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

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 27 (AFP) - The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has established a trust fund to help Morocco finance the forthcoming UN conference on climate change in Marrakesh, UNDP officials said Monday. The conference, to be held from October 29 to November 9, will take up questions that were left unresolved by July's marathon negotiating session in Bonn which saved the Kyoto protocol from collapse.  President George W. Bush announced in March that the United States would not ratify the 1997 Protocol, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions of 39 industrialized countries to 5.2 percent below their 1990 levels by 2012.  Scientists say these gases, mainly the byproduct of industrialization are causing the Earth to warm, with potentially disastrous effects on the global climate system for future generations. But the United States did not attempt to block the negotiations in Bonn and other states agreed on mechanisms to reduce gas emissions. Under the agreement signed by UNDP and the Moroccan government, contributions to the trust fund may be made by UN member states, agencies, non-governmental organisations or private sources. The agreement did not say how much Morocco would need to host the conference.

RABAT, Aug 27 (AFP) - Britain is due to launch a huge campaign in Morocco aimed at boosting trade between the two countries, official sources in Rabat said Monday. Key areas to be targeted during the campaign, the first of its type, include "new information technologies, financial services and the exploration and distribution of oil," the sources said. The three-year campaign has a budget of 1.8 million dollars (1.97 million euros) and will open in October with a fisheries trade fair held in the southern city of Agadir. Britain's ambassador to Rabat, Anthony Layden, said he was "pleased to see Morocco be part of 14 countries picked by the British government" for a trade campaign, in an interview with the local daily L'Economiste. The campaign will be marked by a series of fairs across Morocco and various commercial exchanges, and Layden said he would call upon "British businesses to encourage others to invest in Morocco." By the end of the campaign, Layden said he hoped Britain would become one of Morocco's main trading partners, along with France and Spain.

Morocco to Exceed $ 3 Bln in Foreign Investments in 2001, King Mohammed VI Says.

TETOUAN - Morocco will break this year its historic record in matters of foreign direct investments as it will exceed $ 3 billion in 2001, King Mohammed VI said Tuesday. The Sovereign, who was chairing a work session to scrutinize Morocco's policy in matters of national and foreign investments promotion, called for easing and rationalizing all administrative procedures for investors. "We are in competition with countries, which have an economy and potentials comparable to ours but which managed to privilege pragmatism to guarantee to businessmen all chances," said the Sovereign, adding that there still exist in Morocco a multitude of actors and a certain ambiguity at the level of texts and administrative provisions, which create a context that is sometimes dissuasive for investors. Despite this situation, our country evolves favorably, King Mohammed VI said, adding that Morocco will break this year a historic record in matters of foreign direct investments as these investments will for the first time exceed US$ 3.0 billion in 2001.  "We have problems, but we do have gains and results," said the Sovereign, who called on officials to double efforts to endow Morocco with clearly identified interlocutors and institutions that will act as the institutional and operational interface for investors. "We have to simplify procedures, rationalize taxation, speed up deadlines and offer an efficient and transparent recourse," he recommended, citing a certain number of experiments that yielded excellent results in countries comparable to Morocco. After he heard presentations by several officials participating in the work session, King Mohammed VI asked that concrete proposals be submitted to him in the days to come.

RABAT, Aug 30 (Reuters) - Morocco's consumer price index (CPI) as unchanged in June after rising by a monthly average 0.26 percent in the first five months of this year, the state Statistics Directorate said on Thursday. The CPI rose 1.3 percent year-on-year in June, it said in a report released on its website. The previous months' rises in CPI stemmed mainly from foodstuff prices, which have been moving up for around a year due to a shortfall in agricultural production caused by drought. Analysts expected the CPI to resume an even sharper upward trend in August following rises in consumer goods prices this month. The government said August rises were triggered by what it described as "the impact of liberalization" of several agro-industry activities such as edible oil. 

Morocco yesterday said it would not devalue its local currency again arguing that a five-per cent devaluation of the dirham in April had achieved the intended positive effect on exchange rates. "The evolution of economic indicators cannot in any way justify a move affecting the parity of the dirham," the finance ministry said in a published statement.  Reacting to press speculations of a second devaluation, the ministry said tourism receipts and remittances by Moroccan expatriates posted strong rises, foreign currency reserves were at an unprecedented 88 billion dirhams ($7.8 billion) and inflation was at "less than 1.5 per cent" at the end of June. The budget deficit should be at 3.0 per cent of the $36-billion gross domestic product (GDP) in 2001 and current account deficit will fall by 30 per cent to 1.0 per cent of GDP in 2001, it said.

However, recent official data showed that exports in the first half of 2001 fell 3.4 per cent from their level a year earlier resulting in an 8.1 per cent increase in trade deficit. Around two thirds of Moroccan exports are directed to the European Union. Bank Al-Maghrib (Central Bank) devalued the dirham in April to around 11.5 dirhams to the U.S. dollar from 10.88 dirhams. The move, the first in 11 years, was far below the minimum 10 per cent exporters were expecting to make up for the dirham's appreciation against European currencies since 1996. "It has not covered the huge gap created by the appreciation of the dirham. The current rates encourage more imports," said Mohamed Lahlou, chairman of the clothing industry association AMITH, a sector contributing to one-third of Moroccan exports. "We should return to the normal level of the dirham's exchange rates and this would imply a devaluation of 11-12 per cent," Lahlou told Reuters. David Mann, treasury economist at Standard Chartered bank in London, said a "10-per cent devaluation would allow Morocco to recover lost competitiveness which started in 1997".

RABAT: Morocco has called for a tripartite cooperation between Morocco, Spain and the European Union to contain the illegal immigration problem.  The call was made by culture and communication minister, Mohammed Achaari, at the end of a meeting of the Government Council. The Moroccan authorities fully assume their responsibilities in the struggle against this complicated issue, said Achaari, who stressed the need for dialogue as the best means to settle this issue and cope with its adverse consequences. A joint Moroccan-Spanish-European action to promote a balanced development between the two shores of the Mediterranean is the best means to curb illegal immigration to Europe. Achaari lauded the recent statements of the Spanish government on the holding shortly of the Moroccan-Spanish high joint commission, which represents, he said, the suitable frame to address all problems. Last week, the Moroccan ministry of foreign affairs and cooperation said Spain's approach to illegal immigration was a simplistic approach that does not reflect the complexity of the issue between January 2000 and June 2001, Moroccan security services arrested and expelled some 15,000 African and Asian nationals who were trying to reach Europe via Morocco. More than 20,000 Moroccan candidates to illegal immigration were arrested during the same period.

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