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FOM Newsletter
September
2001
Morocco Week in Review
September 15, 2001
US
ambassador thanks king Mohammed for his sympathy and condemnation of terrorism
King Mohammed
receives US ambassador to Morocco
Volunteerism
to be theme of annual UN meeting with civil society organizations
Morocco,
Belgium set up 100 million euro-worth investment fund
EIB lends Morocco
50 mln euros for water projects
Morocco
- Franchising: KFC plans Dh286 million investment program
Morocco
- Economic indicators: Inflation 0.8% in the first half of 2001
Inflation 0.8% to the end of May
CMC's Bullish Predictions:...
King Mohammed launches new
academic year
Phoenician
archeological site discovered in northern Morocco
Stones
Picked up in Moroccan Desert Revolutionize Knowledge of Mars
New Tax Measures in Morocco
Morocco
- Trade indicators: Customs revenue up 3.1% in year 2000
Moroccan prince
urges public debate on reforms
Méditel raises
capital, has 32% market share
Morocco
- Telecom: MT cuts rates ahead of fixed line competition
Morocco
- Telecom: Maroc Télécom signs Motorola contract
US ambassador thanks king Mohammed for his sympathy and condemnation of terrorism
Morocco-USA, Politics, 9/12/2001
The US Ambassador to Morocco, Ms. Margaret Tutwiler, on Tuesday expressed deep appreciation for the statement of sympathy and condemnation of terrorism issued the same day by King Mohammed VI, following terrorist acts perpetrated against American buildings and institutions. "All Americans, whether at home or abroad, are mourning the tragic loss of innocent life," Ms. Tutwiler said in a communique sent to MAP. The US ambassador also lauded the longstanding relations between Morocco and the United States, which have, she said, "a long history of friendship," and expressed gratefulness "for His majesty's statement, and for the many expressions of sympathy which the American embassy has received from Moroccans for the people of the United States." Following the terrorist attacks on key targets in the United States Tuesday, King Mohammed VI sent US President George Walker Bush a message of condolences, wherein the king condemned the terrorist acts having targeted American institutions and buildings. The message carried the king's sincere condolences, heartfelt sympathy and solidarity to President Bush and to the families of the victims and Morocco's strong condemnation of "these barbarous and odious acts that are contrary to all human principles and values." "In these painful circumstances, I express to your excellency my utter solidarity as well as that of the Moroccan people with the friendly American people in this tragic ordeal," the sovereign said renewing "constant condemnation of abject terrorism." Relatedly, the official spokesman of the royal palace, Hassan Aourid, made a statement pointing out that the Moroccan monarch, people and government condemn this odious terrorist act and abject crime and express their most saddened condolences and heartfelt sympathy to President George W. Bush, to the American people and to the families of the victims of this catastrophe that affects the friendly United States of America. The statement was issued after two airplanes crashed into the World Trade Centre in New York -- collapsing them both -- and a third airplane targeted the Pentagon building in Washington, D.C., bringing a portion of it crumbling to the ground.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010912/2001091223.html
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King Mohammed receives US ambassador to Morocco.
Morocco-USA, Politics, 9/13/2001
Morocco's King Mohammed VI received Thursday at the Royal Palace in Tangiers US ambassador to Morocco, Ms. Margaret Tutwiller. Following the terrorist attacks on key targets in the United States Tuesday, King Mohammed VI had sent US President George Walker Bush a message of condolences, wherein the king condemned the terrorist acts having targeted American institutions and buildings. The message carried the king's sincere condolences, heartfelt sympathy and solidarity to President Bush and to the families of the victims and Morocco's strong condemnation of "these barbarous and odious acts that are contrary to all human principles and values." Ms. Margaret Tutwiler had expressed, in a communique released Tuesday, deep appreciation for the statement of sympathy and condemnation of terrorism issued by King Mohammed VI and for the many expressions of sympathy which the American embassy has received from Moroccans for the people of the United States.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010913/200109
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Volunteerism to be theme of annual UN meeting with civil society organizations.
Culture, 9/10/2001
The "diversity of the volunteer experience" will be the theme of the United Nations Department of Public Information's annual meeting with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in New York this September 10 through 12. Titled "NGOs Today: Diversity of the Volunteer Experience," the 54th annual. Conference will explore issues that challenge civil society organizations, many of which are guided by the spirit of volunteerism. In conjunction with the 2001 International Year of Volunteers, it will focus on the diversity of volunteer experiences around the world, and identify ways in which this spirit can be used more effectively to support the goals and principles of the UN.
Over 2,000 representatives from more than 600 organizations in 90 countries have registered for the Conference. Keynote speeches will be presented by Mexican President Vicente Fox, via live videoconference, and Sharon Capeling-Alakija, Executive Coordinator of the UN Volunteers programme. Through its panel discussions, the Conference will explore the range of volunteer experiences around the world and how they affect the development of NGOs. It will also examine the impact of civil society organizations on the work of the UN system through the established arrangements within the Department of Public Information, through the UN Economic and Social Council and within the UN family of organizations.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010910/2001091040.html
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Morocco, Belgium set up 100 million euro-worth investment fund.
Morocco-Belgium, Business, 9/10/2001
Two private groups, Moroccan "Saham" and Belgian "Thomas et Piron," have set up a fund worth 100 million Euros that will invest in the sector of real estate. The fund will finance joint housing projects in several Moroccan cities. The two groups have already launched two joint projects in Casablanca providing for the construction of respectively 256 and 608 lodgings, a project in the Moroccan southern Atlantic city of Agadir for the construction of 262 lodgings and a fourth project for the building of 110 houses in Sidi Rahal, 20 km south of Casablanca. The signing ceremony of the accord setting up the fund was chaired by Prince Philippe, heir apparent to the throne of Belgium, and attended by Moroccan minister of economy, finance, privatization and tourism, Fathallah Oualalou, and Belgian deputy foreign minister in charge of agriculture, Ms Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck. Prince Philippe arrived in Casablanca Sunday on a five-day work visit to Morocco at the head of a large Belgian business delegation. Prince Philippe and his accompanying delegation are to meet Moroccan officials, economic operators and representatives of the civil society. Prince Philippe will also attend several economic, cultural and social events, including two seminars on water and on the backing of the European investment bank to private investment in Morocco. Morocco, Belgium's 45th client and 47th supplier, exports to the European country textile items, and chemical and mineral products. Morocco's imports from Belgium are made up of textile items, machinery, electric devices and chemical products.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010910/2001091034.html
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EIB lends Morocco 50 mln euros for water projects.
RABAT, Sept 10 (Reuters) - The European Investment Bank (EIB) on Monday granted a 50 million euros loan to Morocco to help the drought-hit North African country develop water projects in rural areas, the official MAP news agency said. The loan, extending over 20 years with a five-year grace period, was signed by EIB President Philippe Maystadt on his first visit to Morocco, and the head of the state-run water agency ONEP, Ali Fassi Fihri. The money disbursed by the European Union's long-term financing arm will benefit over the period 2001-2004 about 70 mid-sized communities or 800,000 people in rural areas, and another 500,000 in underprivileged urban areas, MAP said. At the same ceremony, Belgium signed with the Office National de l'Eau Potable the award of a 51.23 million dirhams ($4.51 million) loan to finance a drinking water purification project in the southern tourist city of Ouarzazate. ($1=11.364 Moroccan dirhams)
(Rabat newsroom, +212-37 720065 fax +212-37 722499, rabat.newsroom@reuters.com)
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=1000139464nL1037080&Section=Countries&page=Morocco
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Morocco - Franchising: KFC plans Dh286 million investment program.
Fast-food chain KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is to spend Dh286 million on the construction of 30 restaurants over the next five years, including the Dh36 million already spent on the 250-seat outlet that was recently inaugurated on the Casablanca waterfront (corniche). An attempt to launch KFC in Morocco during the 1970s ended in failure, but the company says that its restaurants are performing well in the Middle East, and it has expansion plans including Tunisia and Libya for the years ahead. (Source: Upline Securities)
http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm
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Morocco - Economic indicators: Inflation 0.8% in the first half of 2001.
Inflation was 0.8% in the first half of 2001, well down on both the five-year average for the period (1.28%) and the same period last year (1.9%), following zero inflation in June (+0.4% in May). Food prices were down 0.5% on the six-month period, while non-food prices rose 1.9%. The same figures for the month of June alone were -0.1% and +0.1%. (Source: Upline Securities)
http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm.
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Inflation 0.8% to the end of May.
Inflation was 0.8% in the five months to May 31st, well down on both the five-year average for the period (1.26%) and the same period last year (2.0%), despite a 0.4% rise in May (+0.2% in April). Food prices were down 0.6% on the five-month period, and non-food prices were up 2.0%. The same figures for the month of May alone were +0.6% and +0.2%.
http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm
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The Moroccan Economic Research Center (CMC) is predicting 6.2% real GDP growth for 2002, an urban unemployment rate dropping below 20%, and inflation of 2.5%. The Center forecasts 7.6% growth for the full year 2001...
http://us.f112.mail.yahoo.com/ym/login?.rand=evpr30ht3gngn
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King Mohammed launches new academic year.
Education, 9/14/2001
Morocco's King Mohammed VI, accompanied by Prince Moulay Rachid, Thursday launched the new academic year with a visit to a primary school in the northern city of Tangiers. During the visit to the school, where 1200 pupils are enrolled, the king was briefed on the conditions in which the new academic year starts. Registration rate of 6-year old children progressed tangibly to stand at 94 percent, representing a 6.5 percent rise compared to last year. The number of pupils registered nationwide stands at 5,800,000, including 4,150,000 in primary schools, 1,150,000 in secondary schools and 500,000 in high schools. King Mohammed VI stressed the importance granted to the global success of the educational system reform, enforced part of the implementation of the national charter on education-training. The king stressed the need to generalize the schooling of all six-year old children, an objective that should be materialized in all Moroccan provinces in September 2002. King Mohammed VI urged teachers and national education cadres to double efforts to build up quality schools that will guarantee access to useful and functional knowledge and know-how to all the children of Morocco whether in rural or urban areas.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010914/2001091422.html
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Phoenician archeological site discovered in northern Morocco
Morocco, History, 9/13/2001
A Phoenician archeological site was discovered in the Northern Moroccan province of Nador on the Mediterranean coast. The archeological pieces discovered, including ceramic items, show the site may be dating back to 7th to 5th century BC and is the oldest in Morocco so far, a statement by the Faculty of arts and humanities of Mohammedia said. According to the archeologists, who made the discovery, the site is divided into two parts, separated by some 1,000 m, one part being a maritime trade center and the other being an agglomeration. The month-long research works in the region that started last August 27 are conducted part of a university cooperation program between the Mohammedia faculty and the Italian Casino university.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/010913/2001091325.html
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Stones Picked up in Moroccan Desert Revolutionize Knowledge of Mars.
PARIS - Four small stones picked up in the Moroccan desert are revolutionizing the knowledge of Mars, preliminary conclusions of research having shown the stones' direct contact with water in the planet. According to French weekly Paris Match, which is reporting on the subject in its latest release, the conclusions of the research conducted in France were presented this week by French searchers to the annual meteorology congress in Rome. The story started by the end of last year when two meteorite hunters, Carine Bidaut and Bruno Fectay, discovered in the Moroccan desert a small fragment of Mars that they sold to the French research center "CNES"for 370,000 FF. The two meteorite hunters afterwards set up a society, The Memory of the Earth, and started combing the Moroccan desert. The endeavor is worthwhile. Three months later, three other stones, described as a wonder of nature and a treasure for science, are discovered. The stones that proved they contain water are a source of tremendous, valuable information for searchers and may help pierce the secret of Mars.
http://www.map.co.ma/english/dispatches/national_news.htm
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During the ceremony of appointment of Mrs. Dounia Taârji, as a Head of the local Securities Commission. Mr. Oualalou, Minister of Finance, announced the following:
- the reduction on Capital Gains Tax, for institutional investors to the half of the initial rate of 39.6%.
- total exemption for retail investors for the four up coming years.
Following this decision, the market has taken again 4 % during the morning of Monday. Those measures would be included in the 2002's Finance law and therefore effective in 2002. (Source: Upline Securities)
http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm
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Morocco - Trade indicators: Customs revenue up 3.1% in year 2000.
Customs revenue rose 3.1% last year, reaching Dh36.09 billion, a figure that includes Dh12.77 billion in tariffs, Dh12.26 billion in value-added tax (TVA), Dh9.5 billion in Domestic Consumption Tax (TIC), Dh634.3 million in Maghreb/Europe gas pipeline royalties, Dh568.4 million in phosphate fees, and Dh286.5 million in other income. The tax burden on imports dropped from 13% in 1998 to 10.7% last year, mainly due to reduced customs duties and the phasing-in of free-trade agreements. (Source: Upline Securities)
http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm
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Moroccan prince urges public debate on reforms.
RABAT, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Morocco's outspoken Prince Moulay Hicham al-Alaoui says there must be public debate on the need for urgent reforms to wipe out poverty and illiteracy if the country is to move peacefully towards democracy, the weekly Le Journal reported on Sunday.
Moulay Hicham, 37, is King Mohammed's cousin and second in line to the four-centuries-old Alawite throne. "All observers agree on the fact that our society is facing a difficult period of its history... Such a situation needed a definition of what was achieved in the past in order to draw a credible social and political project for the future," Moulay Hicham said in a letter published in Le Journal.
The prince's remarks were seen by political analysts as a new move to take part in the ongoing debate over social and political reforms to eradicate illiteracy, poverty and how to createjobs to hundreds of thousands of unemployed young Moroccans. "Such a project cannot see the light unless there was a deep and public debate," the young prince said. Moulay Hicham was also responding in his letter -- written at end of August and published this weekend jointly by Le Journal and al-Ahdath al-Maghribia daily -- to Ahmed Lahlimi, Minister in Charge of General Affairs and a leading figure in the Socialist-led cabinet. Lahlimi last month told the Paris-based Jeune Afrique magazine that Moulay Hicham's recent political remarks were part of what he dubbed a "conspiracy" directed from abroad against Morocco. The prince has last June called for the reform of the monarchy underlining that "Morocco was in a state of political crisis". The remark stirred a media debate on whether a member of the royal family had the right to criticise state affairs. "I took part in this debate as a free Moroccan and because my position as a prince is not linked to any responsibility in the state... My objective is to contribute to the building of a socio-political pole able to produce and support the necessary reforms to ensure our common future," the prince said.
The prince said in a direct answer to Lahlimi who was named personally: "The conspiracy theory, usually used in Morocco in the past 40 years, is a product of people who have spent their time in preparing and imagining small conspiracies while they were unable to see the bigger ones."
(Rabat newsroom, +212-37 720065 fax +212-37 722499, rabat.newsroom@reuters.com)
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Méditel raises capital, has 32% market share.
Private mobile telephony operator Méditel has increased its capital by Dh 3.5 billion since late April, and will use the extra resources to fund network expansion and densification as well as the installation of back-up equipment. Total capital is now Dh 9.5 billion. Méditel reported 754,821 prepaid and billed subscribers as of June 30th, and claimed a market share of 32.6% after 15 months of operation. Growth in customer numbers was particularly strong in the second quarter of 2001 following a publicity campaign targeting prepaid card recharges. Méditel's State-owned rival, Maroc Télécom, recently broke through the 3 million client barrier.
http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm.
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Morocco - Telecom: MT cuts rates ahead of fixed line competition.
Maroc Télécom is preparing for the end of its domestic fixed line monopoly with a publicity campaign lauding the merits of fixed line service and reminding consumers of recent price reductions. It has also announced lower rates for dedicated line internet access for businesses, as well as price cuts for competing internet service providers that were prompted by unfair competition allegations from France Télécom subsidiary Maroc Connect (Wanadoo). Growth in fixed line subscribers has slowed in recent years, but is expected to rise again - even before the advent of competition - because of increasing Internet traffic. (Source: Upline Securities)
http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm
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Morocco - Telecom: Maroc Télécom signs Motorola contract .
Maroc Télécom has signed a Dh500 million contract with Motorola for the supply of GSM mobile telephony infrastructure. Motorola will provide new generation 900MHz base stations for Marrakech, Agadir, Tangiers, Tétouan, Fès, Meknès, Casablanca, and El Jadida. (Source: Upline Securities)
http://www.north-africa.com/one.htm
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