FOM Newsletter March 2002
FOM Newsletter March 2002
Morocco Week in Review March 2, 2002 

February 26, 2002 (Al-Bawaba via COMTEX) -- According to Al-Hayat newspaper (February 25, 2002), the African Development Bank awarded a 78 million euro ($67 million) loan to the Moroccan Airports Office. The loan will finance the expansion of the King Mohammed the Fifth International Airport so that it can hold the capacity to 10 million passengers by 2010. The project consists of expanding the existing runways and building a new runway for giant planes. In addition, it includes installing new modern navigation and control technologies and equipment at the airport. The expansion project costs $150 million. - (menareport.com) By Mena Report Reporters

German city devotes international women's day to Moroccan women.

The German city of Florsheim (region of Frankfurt) will devote this year's celebrations of the international women's day to Moroccan women.  The event includes testimonies by Moroccan women figures on the situation of women in the Maghreb, a documentary film on Moroccan women, a Moroccan music concert and a conference on women and Islam. The public will also be invited to discover Morocco's cuisine. Similar events were held in honor of Turkish, Greek and Italian women.

Travel technology company Galileo Emirates has been given rights by Galileo International to distribute its tourism information system in three previously untapped markets, Sudan, Morocco and Tunisia. This brings the total number of countries under the Galileo Emirates' umbrella to 10, stated a press release. As National Distribution Company (NDC) for the Galileo Global Distribution System, the company already markets the system in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Iran, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Galileo Emirates faced rival bids from many NDCs in the region for the distribution rights. Galileo Emirates, a division of Emirates Group, has cornered an 80 percent share of the electronic global distribution systems market in the UAE. Information from over 500 airlines can be accessed through Galileo International's computerized reservation systems, as well as 40,889 hotel properties and 41 car rental companies.  It supplies information and systems support to travel agencies operating more than 160,000 computer terminals, in almost 100 countries worldwide. -- (menareport.com)

Senior economic sources revealed that the European Commission in Brussels recently urged Morocco to resume bilateral negotiations in agricultural, reported Al Hayat. The negotiations aim to include agricultural exports on the list of merchandise embodied in the bilateral partnership accord signed in 1996, and which was enacted as of May 2000. The agricultural negotiations between the Europeans and the Moroccans were suspended lastspring following a failure to renew the fishing agreement with Spain. --

Morocco and The United Kingdom (UK) will officially launch this week their business council to promote cooperation between the two countries in the fields of economic trade, finance and investment, reported the official MAP news agency. The UK is Morocco's third largest export market and it's third largest source of imports. The council's main objective will be to supervise a $1.7 million business promotional scheme, launched by Britain, which has chosen Morocco as one of fourteen target markets worldwide for a special campaign of trade development. The British government expects the campaign to last three years. Morocco is the UK's fastest growing market in the Maghreb region. The country's exports to the UK increased by 18 percent in 2000 and imports from the UK increased by 15 percent during the same period. In 2000, UK exports to Morocco totaled 6.7 billion Dirhams ($569 million) and in return, the UK imported 7.7 billion Dirhams worth goods from the North African state during the same year. --(menareport.com)

Moroccan premier, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, chaired on Wednesday the first meeting of the ministerial commission set up by King Mohammed VI to prepare measures needed for devolution of investment management and follow-up of their implementation. The commission examined and endorsed a draft single investment form and 12 draft decrees and decisions delegating some executive powers held by some ministerial departments to the walis (senior governors) and governors. The inter-ministerial commission was set up last January by King Mohammed VI who announced the creation of single investment desks at each region and the devolution to walis and governors of investment-related prerogatives. The royal measures are part of the deconcentration and decentralization Morocco has embarked on and seek to lift obstacles to investments and ease red tape.

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