FOM Newsletter September 2001
Morocco Week in Review
 September 22,  2001

Rabat - US ambassador to Morocco, Ms. Margaret Tutwiler, has expressed thanks and consideration to the Moroccan people for the numerous messages of sympathy they sent to the embassy following the tragic terrorist attacks perpetrated earlier this week against the USA. The diplomat also voiced thanks for the feelings of sympathy and condemnation of terrorism contained in the message King Mohammed VI had sent to President George W. Bush. Ms. Tutwiler also invited families who have a relative missing in the attacks against the World Trade Center, Pennsylvania or the Pentagon to contact the office opened for victims of the attacks by the US justice department on the website: http://www.reponsecare.com or to call the number 800-331-0075.

RABAT, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Leaders of Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities in Morocco held joint prayers on Sunday in the first memorial service of its kind in an Islamic state for the victims of the terror attacks in New York and Washington. The ceremony in the Great Cathedral of Rabat was attended by Socialist Prime Minister Abderrahmane El Youssoufi, advisers of King Mohammed, top army officers, government officials, leaders of political parties, and U.S. and Arab diplomats accredited to Morocco. "We express our sympathy to President George W. Bush and the American people for the dead and missing in the aggression against the United States," Abbas al-Jirari, a top palace adviser, said. Al-Jirari, reading a message from King Mohammed VI, said Morocco vigorously denounced the terror attacks against innocent people in the United states on Tuesday. "Islam warns against extremism and insists on peace and peaceful behaviour...It condemns the violence," the king said. Morocco is a staunch ally of Washington and took part in U.S.-led coalition against Iraq during the 1991 Gulf war.

Rabat - The global volume of water stored in Moroccan dams reached up to last July 31 some 7.20 billion cubic meters, which is 51.6% of capacity, compared to 38% in the corresponding period of last year. The equipment ministry said the volume of water supplies between September 1st 2000 and July 31, 2001, estimated at some 7.6 billion cubic meters declined by 35% compared to the average volume recorded between September 1999 and July 2000

http://www.middleeastwire.com/morocco/stories/20010919_4_meno.shtml

FES - Handicraft sector has contributed 19% to Morocco's Gross Domestic Product and employs around 2 million persons, which stands for 20% of the country's active population. According to figures released at the national seminar convened in Fez to develop a white book on the sector of handicraft, the value of exports stood in 1999 at 610 million Dirhams (about US$ 52.5 million) accounting for 6.5% of total exports of goods and 5 billion DH of foreign currency remittances. The document also says the sector grows by an annual 5.5%, compared to industry which grows by 3.5%. Handicraft, closely linked to tourism where the target is to reach 10 million visitors in 2010, should accompany this forecast to increase its production by 4.4%, create 450,000 new jobs and supply an additional 15 billion DH (US$ 1.2 billion) in foreign currencies over the eight coming years.

TANGIERS- Morocco has signed with US firm "Polydesign systems" a partnership agreement in employment. The US company pledges to recruit 1,000 young graduates in the five coming years while the office will train the company's staff in the skills of weaving. The agreement also provides for the recruitment by the US company of graduates of the Office schools in exchange for technical support to improve human resources management and training.

Unemployment was 12.3% in the second quarter, down from 12.7% in the first quarter and 13.2% in the second quarter of 2000. Urban unemployment dropped to 19.7% (20.1% in the first quarter and 21.4% in the second quarter of 2000), while rural unemployment dropped to 4.2% (4.4% in the first quarter and 4.7% in the second quarter of 2000). The figures are taken from a Statistics Department survey of 32,000 urban households and 16,000 rural households.

 (Source: Upline Securities) http://www.north-africa.com

Although the Moroccan government says it is focusing its energy on controlling inflation, Moroccan households are currently facing continued price increases for key consumer staples such as flour, milk, margarine, cleaning products, and school supplies. The recent price increases have become even more pronounced as the summer vacation season ended and schools reopened their classrooms.

Finance Minister Fathallah Oualalou is predicting 4.4% GDP growth for 2002, compared to a projected 6.8% this year, and a budget deficit equivalent to 3% of GDP (unchanged from last year).

Microsoft Conducts 2nd Training Program for University Graduates in Morocco.

CASABLANCA- Microsoft has completed for the 2nd consecutive year a program to train Moroccan university graduates in the computer and data-processing fields. Last year, a total of 42 university graduates managed to find a job as system and network engineers less than three months after completing the Microsoft program. For the second program, 48 holders of post-graduate diplomas have taken courses in Windows 2000 management, network infrastructure and directory service. They also took courses on techniques of job search, CV writing and preparation of interviews, conducted by employment company "Bill Consulting". Microsoft says the program will be made available next year for handicapped persons and will be carried on for several years.

Morocco and the United State signed in Rabat on Thursday an agreement on the use of nuclear techniques for peaceful ends. Under the agreement, US company "General Atomics" will complete the construction in Morocco of the 1st nuclear reactor that will make it possible to conduct advanced research on materials, nuclear medicine and other farming and industrial applications.  Morocco will join 23 other countries which use reactors for general atomic scientific research, said US ambassador, Margaret Tutwiller who signed the agreement with industry, trade, energy and mining minister, Mustapha Mansouri. Morocco, which is member of the International Atomic Energy Agency since 1957, has adhered to all international treaties and conventions related to nuclear energy, mainly the non-proliferation nuclear treaty.

Morocco and Spain agree to cooperate in enterprise creation and training of young entrepreneurs.

Spanish foundation "Jorja 21" and the Tangiers chamber of commerce, industry and services and the national job and competence promotion agency agreed on Thursday to initiate partnership in the creation of enterprises and the training of young entrepreneurs. The agreement seeks to encourage young graduates from the northern region to create their own enterprise through a practical assistance to support economic and social development in the region.

Moroccan university launches economic analysis and prospective studies institute.

Al-Akhawayn university in Ifrane (Middle Atlas mountains resort) has started an institute for economic analysis and prospective studies to consolidate and diversify its research structures. Higher education and scientific research minister, Najib Zeroual, said the new institution will be actively participating in the ongoing debates in Morocco on new economic and social mutations and will be a forum for national and international encounters on future challenges. The institute, a think-tank, was set up to accompany Morocco's development process through a better management of knowledge, policies and economic options, promotion of new ideas and improved access to information available on the international scene.

An inter-ministerial commission for investments approved on Monday ten projects in industry, tourism, energy and distribution, worth around seven billion Dirhams (US$ 608.6 million). An official statement said the ten projects will generate 7,990 direct permanent jobs. Since its creation, the commission has approved 148 investment projects and conventions, of a total amount of 59 billion DH (US$ 5.13 billion) and generating a total of 60,700 jobs. The commission also looked into two other investment tourism projects and another project in energy, for a total value of 2 billion DH (US$ 173.9 million). Another investment project for a cement plant will be further discussed with promoters while a restricted technical committee was asked to carry on with promoters the study of economic, technical and financial conditions for a plant to process alfa, a wild plant that grows in dry areas, for the production of pulp in eastern Morocco. The commission further heard explanations on progress in a study for a tourism compound in the Moroccan Mediterranean eastern sea resort of Saidia Raselma.

Madrid - Delegates of over 40 Mediterranean non-governmental organizations have set up last week in Madrid a Euro-Arab development and integration network. The network, to be based in Spain, will be prospecting new forms of interaction between public and private bodies and helping in the training of Ngos volunteers who will be taking part in programs and projects set forth by governments and supra-national bodies.

http://www.middleeastwire.com/morocco/stories/20010918_1_meno.shtml

RABAT, Sept 16 (AFP) - Morocco's main radical Islamist movement, Al Adel Oua Al Ihssane, deplores violence and terrorism and also fears a campaign of hatred against Muslims and Arabs, its spokesman Fatah Allah Arsalane said Saturday. "Our Islamist association is against violence in principle," Arsalane told AFP when asked his view on Tuesday's bloody terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. "It is difficult for us to comment further as long as we don't know for sure and in convincing fashion who is behind these acts," added Arsalane, whose movement is not officially authorised by the state, but is tolerated subject to surveillance. "Violence and terrorism targeting innocent people are horrible and to be condemned, as is Israeli aggression against Palestinian civilians," Arsalane said. "We have to root out the causes of the violence in the Middle East." These causes were "injustice, the occupation of land, the repression of Palestinian freedoms and a policy of double standards in the Middle East," he said. "The West must act to put an end to aggression in this region." Arsalane also charged that some Western leaders and media were waging an unfair campaign of denigration against Muslims and Arabs after the attacks. "We know that it is Israel leading this campaign and that it risks worsening the hatred between nations and peoples." 

Al Adel Oua Al Ihssane (Justice and Good Deeds) is led by Cheikh Abdessalam Yassine, who had been under house arrest for more than a decade until the restriction was lifted by the new King Mohammed VI last year. Morocco's twice-weekly Islamic paper Attajdid, owned by the moderate Islamic Justice and Development Party (PJD), meanwhile condemned the suicide attacks in the United States but also spoke out against "the aggression the Palestinians suffer at the hands of Israel." "We fear that the response to the attacks will look like aggression, blind revenge, injustice against innocent people, the collective punishment of peoples and communities," PJD official Ahmed Rissouni wrote. In neighbouring Tunisia, similar fears were expressed in much of the non-governmental press on Saturday. "The international community must beware of an over-hasty reaction, the risks of collective punishment of peoples and the danger of responding to terrorism by individuals with state terrorism," the daily Assabah said. Describing the situation in Afghanistan as "increasingly critical", the paper said "international condemnation will be all the more unanimous if the investigations implicate the Kabul regime and Osama Bin Laden in the death of American civilians". The paper urged the leaders of the United States, Europe, Japan, Russia and China "to attack the root causes of terrorism and violence, starting with the Israeli occupation of Arab land, which has gone on for too long." "Partisans of peace, far from being bloodthirsty, are waiting for political gestures like that of the American president, who on Friday called on (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon to implement the Mitchell plan and to stop the massacres." 

Le Temps, another Tunisian daily, criticized the media's haste to make "premature and unfounded charges", arguing that "the West, because of the circumstances, has flouted the presumption of innocence to which it is usually so committed." "The guilty party has already been identified. The investigation would thus only be a mere procedure ... whose 'collateral' result would be a serious destabilisation of Arab communities living in Europe and the United States."

Morocco says it will contribute and help in identifying and suing authors of attacks.

Morocco will bring all the needed contribution and assistance, whether in the United States or in the European Union, to identify and bring before justice those who perpetrated the attacks of New York and Washington, said Moroccan minister of foreign affairs and cooperation, Mohamed Benaissa. In an interview published Friday by "L'Economiste" daily, the official recalled that Morocco, through its king and officials of political bodies, has clearly expressed, and as soon as the events happened, its concerns regarding the risks of amalgam, crusade, confusion and hasty conclusions.  He called for prudence, accurateness, and preciseness during the investigation and for avoiding hastiness.  Asked on potential US reprisals, the head of the Moroccan diplomacy said it was impossible to predict the kind and extent of reprisals, and urged the US administration to show judgement, wisdom, caution and prudence, stressing that the military option is not the only means to combat and eradicate terrorism. "Attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have revealed a new face of terrorism, marked by a degree of sophistication, organization and logistics, a terrorism that could be justified by injustice in relations between states," he explained. He went on that the world has entered a new stage where the protection of humans and their property against terrorism will become a priority, hoping that the quest of safety, peace and stability will not be done at the expense of individual freedoms. He added that the impact of terrorism should incite everybody to endeavor for the advent of a new era of peaceful co-existence between civilizations and cultures and such is the goal to which Morocco would like to contribute. Asked on last week's events on the Moroccan economy, he said it is too early to determine any impact, adding the Moroccan government will make at the appropriate time an assessment of the situation.

The Moroccan carrier Royal Air Maroc resumes flights to New York and Montreal after US and Canadian civil aviation authorities got sure the safety and security measures adopted by the carrier were conform to the measures imposed to all carries servicing the United States and Canada. A first RAM plane flew to New York Monday while a plane is scheduled to take off this Tuesday afternoon for Montreal. Another Casablanca-Montreal flight is scheduled for next Thursday and a Casablanca- NEW York flight is scheduled for next Saturday. Flights to the United States and Canada were suspended for about a week following the closure of US and Canadian airports in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks against US institutions and buildings on September 11. RAM customers can call the toll-free number 0 8000 80 90 for further information.

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