Solidarity campaign yielded 140 million dh.
Morocco's Q3 unemployment falls to 13 pct.
Moroccan-US group obtains concession of waste dump in Fez.
Italian government supports Moroccan SME's.
Moroccan think-tank criticizes 2002 state budget.
Newfound Oil Reserves to Boost Moroccan Expenditures.

Solidarity campaign yielded 140 million dh.

Culture, 12/29/2001

The Mohammed V solidarity foundation announced on Friday that the 4th solidarity and poverty- alleviation campaign, staged last November, has raised 140 million DH (US$ 12.7 Mln), including 110 million in cash and the rest consisting in kind donations. The in-kind donations consist of food stuffs, clothes, computers, vehicles, construction materials, equipment for handicapped persons and others. The announced amount does not include, however commitments and promises made by various partners to contribute in ongoing or planned projects. More than 2 million persons and 200 enterprises took part in the campaign inside Morocco while donations raised by Moroccans living in France and Belgium reached 5 million DH (US$ 0.45 million). King Mohammed VI had launched on Nov.8 the 4th solidarity campaign under the theme "Let's all participate in the solidarity chain," to raise funds to enable the Foundation carry on its actions meant to improve children's living standards, support disabled persons, help elderly persons and assist Moroccan expatriates who spend their holidays in Morocco. The foundation conducted during the fasting month of Ramadan its meal-distribution operation during which it handed to needy persons 1.3 million fast-breaking meals for 44,550 families in cities. In rural area, the foundation distributed to 406,400 families 8,128 tons of flour, 2 millions liters of edible oil, 1,625 tons of sugar and 101 tons of tea. A budget of 70 million DH (US$ 6.36 Mln), including 58 millions (US$ 5.27) for the rural world was allocated to the operation. The foundation had said that funds raised during this campaign will serve to build, extend, renovate or equip two social centers for abandoned children, and other training centers nationwide, in addition to increase the schooling of girls in rural areas through the construction of dorms and improving the training of disabled persons. Other projected actions will seek to improve the equipment in 15 hospitals, ensure decent living conditions to old persons, improve the accommodation of hundreds of students, contribute to lasting development to least favored persons in the countryside, and increase access to basic facilities.

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/011229/2001122920.html

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Morocco's Q3 unemployment falls to 13 pct.

RABAT, Dec 31 (Reuters) - Unemployment rate in Morocco fell to 13 percent at the end of the third quarter of 2001 against 14.2 percent in the same period a year earlier, the Statistics Directorate said on Monday. The directorate said in a report published on its website that the country's workforce also fell 1.7 percent to 10.06 million. Unemployment rate in urban areas fell almost by three percentage points to 19.5 percent of the 5.43 million urban workforce. In rural areas the rate remained almost unchanged at 5.4 percent. The rate among graduates fell from 28.4 percent at the end of September 2000 to 25.3 percent at the end of the first nine months of 2001. Unemployed non-graduates represented 7.0 percent of the total jobless population against 7.6 percent a year earlier, it added. The Moroccan Jobless Graduates Association, an officially unrecognised group which claims 35,000 members, staged on Thursday sit-ins in several cities of the country to press for government action to create jobs. Analysts say Morocco's agriculture- reliant economy needs to post a minimum 6.0 percent growth per year to manage to supply jobs for some 250,000 who enter the job market every year. But cyclical drought and a lack of initiative by the private sector hinder the country from meeting that target and creates only 180,000 jobs per year, they added.

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

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=1009817989nL31480299&Section=Countries&page=Morocco

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Moroccan-US group obtains concession of waste dump in Fez.

Economics, 12/31/2001

The authorities of the city of Fez signed end of last week with a Moroccan-US group a concession allowing the private group to build and operate for 10 years the city's solid waste dump. Under the contract, the group will build for an investment of 75 million DH (US$ 6.8 million), equip and operate a solid waste dump. The convention comprises all works related to the new facility including access roads, building of premises, protection of underground waters, the purchase of vehicles and other equipment and the operation of 900 tons of solid waste daily. The Fez-Boulemane wali (senior governor), Lahoucine Tijani, said the new waste dumping facility will help preserve water resources, protect environment, improve living conditions and economic exploitation of solid waste. He also promised other environment-protection projects will be launched in 2002, including liquid waste sanitation and information campaigns. Manager of the US group said the new facility will be using state-of-the art equipment and will be employing local labor, while the manager of the Moroccan group said it will eventually allow technology transfer. The city's old waste dumping station, dating back to 1980, is completely saturated for a city that produces 800 tons of waste daily.

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/011231/2001123126.html

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Italian government supports Moroccan SME's.

Economics, 1/1/2002

Italy has crafted a program to support the private sector and small and medium-sized enterprises in Morocco, says the chamber of commerce, industry and services of Tangiers. The program includes extending assistance and expertise to enterprises, human resources training, and a credit line worth 30 billion Liras to beextended at interest rates not exceeding 5.25% to Moroccan enterprises.

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020101/2002010123.html

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Moroccan think-tank criticises 2002 state budget.

By Souhail Karam

RABAT, Jan 4 (Reuters) - A leading Moroccan think-tank on Friday criticised the 2002 state budget for its lack of audacity, its failure to encourage public investment and its neglect of rural development. The Centre Marocain de Conjoncture (CMC) said the budget was marked by "a perseverance in the reduction of public debt.... and not on the development of economic and social infrastructure, prerequisites for the promotion of foreign investment". "While the national economy continues to suffer years of drought and while the events of September 11 worsened the world economic slowdown, the budget seems to be centered even more on financial equilibriums," the CMC said. The CMC's criticisms of the 2002 budget follow those made recently by the CGEM business group, the finance ministry's General Economic Policy Directorate (DPEG) and by opposition political parties. A group of 97 parliamentarians has asked the Constitutional Council to annul the budget but it rejected their demand. A CGEM official told Reuters on Friday "the trouble with this budget is that it lacks courage, it does not structure but only stabilises. The government does not want to take risks in fear of paying the price in the next elections." Morocco will hold elections in September. "The already-thin public investment shrinks by 10.2 percent while debt servicing rises by 8.2 percent to take 32.9 percent of the budget," the CGEM official added. Parliament last month approved the 2002 budget which forecasts revenues of 159.8 billion dirhams and expenditure of 165.7 billion dirhams ($14.5 billion), resulting in a deficit of 5.9 billion dirhams, down from an estimated 6.4 billion dirham deficit in 2001. The budget assumes 4.5 percent economic growth and a 2.5 percent inflation rate. Agriculture accounts for up to 20 percent of the economy. Morocco has suffered badly from drought in the past three years which has led to near-zero economic growth.  With a population of 30 million, Morocco has an estimated Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of 365 billion dirhams ($31.9 billion).

DEBT SERVICING TO RISE

Public investment in 2002 is expected to drop to 19.9 billion dirhams from 21.7 billion in 2001 while debt servicing would rise from 42.2 billion dirhams to 46.7 billion dirhams. "The rise in debt servicing is due to a substantial 16.6 percent rise in domestic debt servicing...Foreign debt servicing would drop by an insignificant 0.25 percent to 14.9 billion dirhams," the CMC said.

Analysts say the finance ministry's efforts to reduce foreign debt have been offset by a rise in domestic debt. "At the end of the day, our total public debt remains unchanged," a financial analyst said. Standard and Poor's, in a rating described as unfair by the Moroccan government, said in November that it expected Morocco's deficit to reach six percent of GDP this year against the government's 2.8 percent forecast. S&P also said that progress to improve the agriculture- reliant economy had been "disappointing and it remained very vulnerable to climatic vaguaries". ($1=11.383 Moroccan dirhams)

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

http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=1010160180nL04299951&Section=Countries&page=Morocco

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Newfound Oil Reserves to Boost Moroccan Expenditures.

January 4, 2002 1

The Moroccan economy has proven to be resilient in spite of a modest downturn in the pace of trade with Europe. The IMF projects that Morocco's economy will grow 4.5 percent during 2002. Healthy economic expansion should prevent any substantial rise in unemployment and, assuming that Middle East tensions cool off a bit, help to boost consumer confidence Increased access to domestic fuel sources will work in favor of industrial development through this decade. Morocco was thought to be without oil until the announcement in August 2000 that oil and gas deposits of between 1.5 and 2 billion barrels had been discovered in the Talsint region near the Algerian border. Those deposits could satisfy the nation's fuel requirements for anywhere from 25 to 30 years Exploitation of the recently discovered oil and gas deposits will drive demand for petroleum industry products and services through this decade. Government incentives to foreign investors make it increasingly attractive for international companies to establish production facilities. A modest increase in direct foreign investment over the next few years should help to boost employment through 2002 and 2003. Agriculture remains a leading component in the nation's overall economic activity, accounting for over 15 percent of GDP. In 1999, about half the workforce was employed in this sector. Roughly 50 percent of the country's arable land is devoted to the production of cereals (especially barley), but an increasing amount of investment capital is being poured into leading agriculture-based exports including citrus, wine, sugar beets/cane, vegetables, and olives. Faced with an increasingly competitive international market for agricultural exports, farmers will be forced to upgrade production equipment and raw materials over the next few years. A recent government report stated, "About 300,000 people are employed directly or indirectly in the fishing industry, which is a key sector of the Moroccan economy, contributing over US$600 million in export earnings. The ocean off Morocco's Atlantic coast is one of the richest fishing grounds in the world. Morocco is the most important producer and exporter of sea products in Africa and the Arab world." Mining is another important sector of the country's economy. It represents 30 percent of the value of exports and employs 116,600 people. Morocco is the world's leading exporter of phosphates (18 percent of Moroccan exports in 1998) and has three-quarters of the world's reserves.

PUBLISHED BY EDIMAX USA PUBLICATIONS / Copyright 2002 

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