FOM Newsletter April 2002
FOM Newsletter April 2002
Morocco Week in Review April 13, 2002 

President Bush will meet with King Mohamed VI of Morocco at the White House on April 23 to discuss developments in the Middle East and key bilateral issues. The President looks forward to the opportunity to review regional and bilateral issues with the King of Morocco, who has played a constructive role in the search for Middle East peace and has been a staunch ally in the international fight against terrorism.

The United States is determined to develop a mutually advantageous partnership with Morocco, said Wednesday Ms. Catherine Novelli, assistant to the US trade Secretary in charge of Europe and the Mediterranean. The USA is determined to go ahead with developing a mutually advantageous economic partnership with Morocco and to back the efforts made by Morocco in matters of economic reforms, Ms. Novelli told the press in Rabat. The official, who said that her country looks forward to the work visit King Mohammed VI will start to the USA on April 21, noted that she debated with Moroccan officials means to reinforce economic and commercial relations with Morocco and to increase the flow of investments into the Kingdom. The talks focused on a large range of fields, particularly telecommunications, insurances and agriculture, she said, voicing hope that the Moroccan and US private sectors will be more involved in the drive to pave the way for an acting partnership. Ms. Novelli is visiting Morocco part of a third meeting held in accordance with a bilateral trade and Investment Frame-Work Agreement (TIFA), signed in 1995. She said that her trip is also a follow-up of a visit US trade representative, Robert Zoellick, paid to Morocco last January and during which he studied with Moroccan officials the possibility to conclude a Moroccan-US free trade accord. Only four countries are bound to the USA by such an accord: Canada, Mexico, Jordan and Israel.

The world bank has extended Morocco two loans worth US$ 97.6 million. The two loans, worth respectively $ 65 million and $32.6 million, will finance an information infrastructure promotion program and the first phase of a rural integrated development program dealing mainly with small and medium scale water works. The information infrastructure promotion program, meant to carry on reforms already initiated to upgrade the sectors of telecommunication, post and information technologies, had previously benefited from a $ 100 million loan from the World Bank. The first phase of the rural integrated development program seeks to rehabilitate and modernize 9,540 hectares in the provinces of Azilal, Kh?nifra andt El Haouz. The whole program, extending over 12 years, aims at building small and medium sized water works to promote 46,000 hectares in 15 provinces. Both projects are meant to speed up economic growth and reduce social and regional disparities in the country.The loan accords were signed this Friday in Rabat by Moroccan minister of economy, finance, privatization and tourism, Fathallah Oualalou, and head of the World Bank office in Rabat, Olivier Gordon. Gordon told MAP the two accords symbolize the content of the new cooperation strategy between Morocco and the international financial institution. These accords, he said, are based on two pillars: the first concerns promotion of general growth, integration in the economy of knowledge and easing poor layers' access to this economy, while the second is related to poverty reduction through participative, more inclusive and decentralized approaches.

Morocco's traditional handicraft industry employs two million persons, representing 20 percent of the employed population in the country, reported the official MAP news agency. The North African state's handicraft industry contributed 19 percent of the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP), amounting to 67 billion Moroccan dirhams ($5.8 billion) in 2000. The sector's contribution to the GDP is higher than that of agriculture, one of Morocco's most crucial industries, employing half of the country's workforce. In 2000, agriculture contributed only 16 percent to the GDP. Foreign tourists paid $379.3 million to buy Moroccan handicraft items in 1999. Germany is Morocco's biggest handicraft market followed by Luxembourg and Finland with the UK coming in fourth place. --

Several Moroccan associations, the CICONIA Foundation (Liechtenstein) and the SPANA Association (Great Britain) have pledged under a cooperation declaration to join efforts to protect the marshlands of the Loukkos river that runs from the Rif Mountains and flows into the Atlantic near Larache, northern Morocco. The signatory sides undertake to upgrade their cooperation to secure an integrated development and preserve the Loukkos marshlands, which are a crossroads for migratory birds and a shelter for exceptional flora and fauna. The signatories of this declaration, dubbed "the Larache Declaration," pledge to extend financial, moral and technical backing to this partnership.CICONIA Chairman, Prince Christophe of Liechtenstein, was among the signatories.

The Netherlands decided to create three investment desks to promote commercial relations with Morocco, Dutch minister of foreign trade, Gerrip Ybema, announced on Sunday. The desks --to be located in Rotterdam (Holland), and in the Moroccan northern cities of Oujda and Nador -- will advise and assist Netherlands-settled Moroccans who want to invest in Morocco, said Ybema, who is currently visiting Morocco at the head of a business delegation. The Netherlands is the first European country to engage a cooperation of this kind with Morocco. Ybema met in Rabat Monday Moroccan minister of economy, finance, privatization and tourism, Fathallah Oualalou over economic issues. Oualalou stressed the need to strengthen the two countries' commercial relations, and the encouragement of Dutch investment in Morocco. The Dutch minister voiced confidence that Moroccan-Dutch commercial ties will be stronger in the future thanks to the Moroccan economy's openness onto the world, and the encouraging incentives the country offers to investors. He also lauded the two countries' excellent relations, and recalled that Morocco was the first Moslem country with which Netherlands signed a cooperation agreement in 1605. Trade between Morocco and the Netherlands stood at 500,000 Euro in 2000. Some 300,000 Moroccan-born nationals are settled in this country.

The administration of customs and direct taxes (ADII) will henceforth accept clearance by credit card. An agreement to this end was signed Wednesday between the ADII and la Banque Populaire Centrale (BCP). ADII director general, Abderrazak El Mossaddeq, said this payment modality, which is meant to ease administrative procedures, is advantageous for both the administration and the users since it shields from the risks (theft, loss.) related to classical payment modalities (cash, certified checks, bonds.) The credit card payment will not however be accepted for import duties concerning big customs operations, he said.

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