Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
June 12 2005

Pragmatic actions adopted to promote Morocco in U.S., US diplomat
Morocco: One in five doctors is smoker
EMarrakech supports Moroccan women
Moroccan Proposal to Place Restrictions on Cigarette Makers.
French Company to Build Water Purification Plant in Marrakech.
Argan oil lowers cholesterol rate, study says.
High Insulin Prices in Morocco.
Assessing Morocco's Family Law
Morocco expects 6.5 million tourists in 2005.
95% of Moroccan music products affected by piracy.

Pragmatic actions adopted to promote Morocco in U.S., US diplomat.
Economics, 6/9/2005

US ambassador in Rabat, Thomas Riley, said his country has adopted a pragmatic drive to promote Morocco in the United States after the two countries signed a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) last June 15. The FTA is recognition of political and economic reforms ushered in Morocco and of the friendship binding the Moroccan and American peoples, the US diplomat told the three-monthly magazine "Al-Maliya."

The free trade accord, signed after seven rounds of negotiations, eliminates tariffs on 95 percent of all bilateral trade between the United States and Morocco. The ambassador cited as an example 'Fruit of the Loom' that recently invested $100 millions in textile-clothing in the north African country. Such concrete examples are likely to play as incentives to convince American economic operators invest in Morocco, he said. Riley believes the FTA's success depends on the will of investors and economic operators to discover potential markets.

The ambassador also cited the example of car spare parts, saying Morocco is a country that attracts specialized foreign investors in this realm.
"Investors operating in the free zone of Tangier are very satisfied with the results," he said. Riley said American negotiators were totally aware that some Moroccan sectors are sensitive, including agriculture and textile. He noted, however, that they have reached with their Moroccan peers a balanced agreement that preserves Morocco's interests.
http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/050609/2005060929.html
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Morocco: One in five doctors is smoker .
01-06-2005.

Marking the International Day without Smoking, Tuesday May 31, Morocco presented alarming statistics. <i>Aujourd'hui Le Maroc</i> reported that a survey among a large number of the country's doctors (average age of 39) showed that the about 20.9% of them smoke. It was also discovered that the percentage of male doctors, who smoke, is higher than that of female doctors and that the percentage of doctors, who smoke, in the rural and suburban regions, is higher than that of doctors in urban regions.
As for other Arab countries, the percentage of doctors who smoke is 18.4% in Kuwait, 30% in Sudan, 16% in Iran, 14% in Bahrain and 10% in Oman.
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Morocco/184356 
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EMarrakech supports Moroccan women

A new petition was published last week in EMarrakech newspaper calling for the "transfer of Moroccan nationality from Moroccan women to their children," even though these children are born to a foreign father. The petition was initiated by the Women of Morocco project, wich aims at promoting women status in Moroccan society. This initiative is supported by the newspaper. EMarrakech declared its full- support for the cause of improving women status in Morocco and strongly urged its readers to sign the petition. EMarrakech ended its call by declaring "let us acknowledge the citizenship of our children as a means of recognizing the citizenship of Moroccan woman."
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Morocco/184691 
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Moroccan Proposal to Place Restrictions on Cigarette Makers.
03/06/2005 

Moroccan Minister of Health Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah confirmed on Wednesday (1 June) a draft project banning smoking and tobacco advertisements in certain public areas is currently under consideration by the government. The new decree would also force cigarette producers to write warnings on packs. According to the MAP news agency, more than 90 per cent of cancer cases in Morocco are caused by tobacco usage. The same source stated that 34 per cent of Moroccans age 20 and over are smokers http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/homepage/ 
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French Company to Build Water Purification Plant in Marrakech.
07/06/2005

French water treatment engineering company Degremont was recently awarded a contract to build the largest water purification plant in Morocco in Marrakech. The plant is expected to process a volume of liquid waste equivalent to the water used by 1m people. The 20m-euro project, supported by the European Investment Bank, will benefit Marrakech regional water and electricity distribution company RADEEMA.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/homepage/ 
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Argan oil lowers cholesterol rate, study says.
Paris, June 6

Two spoons of the Argan oil ingested daily could cut down the cholesterol rate in blood in a month span, said several ongoing studies on this tree endemic to the South-Western Moroccan region of Souss. The Argan tree grows mostly in the Souss region where people collect the tree's nut and process it into a dark brown oil. The Soussis also ground almonds with the oil to get a thicker mixture called "amloo", that looks like peanut butter.

Argan is now grown in Northern Morocco in experiment to introduce the species close to Khemisset and some researchers reported they even discovered the tree in the North-East of the country, but would not explain how it ended up in the region. "Le Figaro TV magazine" said regular consumption of Argan oil also reduces the risk of blood pressure, reporting the findings of one of the studies.

Scientific researches conducted lately have been confirming the benefits of the oil. The research studied 183 people of the "Essaouira" region, who regularly consume the oil, finding they are twice less at risk of suffering blood pressure than people who do not eat the oil. The Moroccan have been using for centuries the Argan oil as food as well as a beauty product, notably as an ointment for skin and hair. The oil is relatively rich in vitamin E and is antioxidant that can limit the appearance of wrinkles. The Soussis and the Moroccans at large use it to remedy arthritis and for some decades it is advised to lower cholesterol rate and hence prevent heart diseases.

The Argan tree (argania spinosa) grows in a harsh environment, surviving heat, drought and poor soil. It is little known outside Morocco, and many Moroccans themselves have never heard of it because it grows only in the south-west of the country - roughly between Essaouira and Agadir, in an area covering 700,000-800,000 hectares, al-bab.com says. But within the area where the Argan grows there are about 21 million trees, which play a vital role in the food chain and the environment, though their numbers are declining. The tree, which is thorny and can reach heights of 8-10 metres, probably originated in Argana, a village north-east of Agadir. It lives longer than the olive and requires no attending.
The production of Argan oil, which is still mostly done by traditional methods, is a lengthy process. Each nut has to be cracked open to remove the kernels, and it is said that producing one litre of oil takes 20 hours'
work.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/general/argan_oil_lowers_cho/view 
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High Insulin Prices in Morocco.

Moroccan diabetics spend a great deal of money on insulin. This is because pharmacists charge exorbitant prices to protect their high margins. Their pricse are three times or more what drug manufacturers charge. In Morocco, a sizeable portion of the insulin market is subject of government regulation as drugs makers sell more than half of their products to the state through a tender process. As part of this process, public hospital inpatients are fully covered and do not pay for the insulin, but as soon as they walk out, they face a supply chain where prices make no sense.

On the supply side, two companies are involved in the Moroccan market. They are Laprophan, the representative of the Danish Novo Nordisk, and Sothema, the representative of the American Eli Lilly. While Laprophan imports its insulin for the Moroccan market, Sothema produces it locally. Tthe two compete against each other in a tough competition for the state and private markets. When tenders are issued by the health ministry, the two compete ferociously for a market estimated at one million doses annually. The value of that market is about MAD 55 million, representing a unit price of MAD 55 per dose. Analysts at the health ministry say drugs companies make healthy profit margins, estimating that their cost to produce and deliver a single dose is MAD 40.

But while the economics on the supply side makes sense, the retail portion of the insulin chain in Morocco is a little more complicated. The single dose of the Sothema insulin at the retail level is sold at MAD 166. The Laprophan equivalent is sold at MAD 196.70. An executive at Sothema says "contrary to the public market, our price is MAD 104 per dose when marketing to the private sector. Wholesalers add a 10% margin and retail outlets boost their margins by 30%."

The executive added "the low prices we offer in state contracts are due to the fact that volumes are high enough to justify those prices." Indeed, official government sources indicate that state orders, in volume terms, account for more than half of the total market. There are some one million diabetics in Morocco, with about 11% of them entirely dependent on insulin.
Despite these numbers, the high prices of insulin in retail have been a source of tension among the patients, with is a 100% markup compared to the original price at the manufacturers' level.

For now, local manufacturing is likely to remain the domain of Sothema, despite signals from Laprophan that it will engage in production within Morocco. Boosting production capacity within Morocco could help drive prices down, but there are no clear indications on when Laprophan will begin producing there.

Apart from these two companies, other pharmaceutical firms have been envisaging their involvement in production in Morocco. Among them is Polymedic, a local firm that has been in talks with an unnamed British drugs company for the purpose of manufacturing in Morocco. But until then, Moroccan diabetics will continue to pay high prices for their drugs.
http://www.north-africa.com/free.htm 
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Assessing Morocco's Family Law

Months since its promulgation, and the implementation of the Moudawana appears rather sketchy. Experts, however, warn that assessing the implementation of this package of social and civil rights rules after only nine months since its promulgation may not be the right thing to do. But it has also been a year now since the young Moroccan King laid out his vision on the necessary social changes in his October 10, 2003 speech, and an assessment is indeed in order.

Although there are no statistics yet as to the impact of the Moudawana, there is clear evidence of the lack of respect to the new law in a great number of cases. Repudiations, marriages of women of less than 18 years of age, and the immense difficulties for women to obtain their rights, in particular when filing for divorce are indicative of a law that is facing resistance in its execution.

These cases reported by civil and women's rights activities are really troubling to the points that skeptics see the King's statements of last year and the new law itself as just window-dressing aimed at getting praises from rights activists worldwide.

Though activists quickly blame the judges for being the main sources of resistance, a senior justice ministry official, Mohamed Labidi says it is just a matter of time before the law enters into full force. To push for the implementation of the law, the department of the family in the Moroccan government has increased the number of seminars and meetings on the topic and has recently established an information and research center called Centre Marocain d'Information et d'Etudes sur la Femme. It hopes the center will contribute to a better understanding of the issues surrounding the family law in an effort to increase awareness on the importance to changing the perceptions in the general public and those assigned to interpret and enforce the law.

The law gives judges added power and more discretion when dealing with family-related conflicts. As such, the judge is the most important officer to uphold the law and apply the regulation in matters of marriages and divorces, as well as other matters that could occur when conflicts arise in families. Judges, for example, are the ones who determine the value of alimonies. They have the power to grant separations and divorces upon the review of evidence provided to him by any party in the marriage. "But like all other humans, judges make mistakes and may have problems in the interpretation of the law," added Mohamed Labidi.

And indeed he is right in this case. There are at least 160 reported legal cases that have been referred to the ministry of justice for additional clarification. They are cases of jurisprudence as they are the first such cases to be treated since the enactment of the law. The issue is even more complicated for judges operating abroad who are appointed to handle cases of the expatriate community. The law was written in the Arabic language and has not been translated into French, which makes implementation challenging.

Although it has been only nine months since the Moudawana was amended to give more rights to women and introduce a more balanced approach in dealing with issues affecting genders, parents, and children, a comprehensive review on the issue of implementation is critical if Morocco wants all its citizens to feel equal.
http://www.north-africa.com/free.htm 
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Morocco expects 6.5 million tourists in 2005.

Moroccan Minister of Tourism, Craft Industry and Social Economy, Mr. Adil Douiri indicated that Morocco might lure about 6.5 million tourists in 2005. The Minister, who was talking during an interview with the daily newspaper Assahra Al Maghribia, published on Tuesday, stressed that this year's increase in the number of tourists is a result of his ministry programs to promote tourism, and in particular the ambitious "Azure plan". The Minister also stated that the number of tourists coming from Europe alone increased by about 27% so far this year. Azure Plan was launched in late 2002 with the aim to increase the number of foreign visitors to Morocco. Bladi.Net reports that Mr. Douiri emphasized that the government's greatest expectation from the development in the tourism sector is that by 2010, the year in which the "azure plan" is scheduled to be completed, there will be about 80,000 new direct and indirect employment opportunities created by this sector.
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Morocco/184747 
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95% of Moroccan music products affected by piracy.

Some 95% of Moroccan music products are affected by piracy, a magazine aired by national TV "TVM" on Wednesday indicated. "Echoeco" said 95% of audio and compact disc music products is found in the black market. According to the report, organized groups exploit new technologies of information and communication to manufacture and illicitly distribute audio cassettes, CDs, video tapes and VCDs with an estimated production capacity of some 400,000 cassettes and 600,000 CDs a week. Losses resulting from pirating and counterfeiting CDs and cassettes are put at about MD 200 million (some US$ 23.5 million). Pirated VCDs and DVDs affect Moroccan cinema as well, as cinemagoers dropped to 6 million in 2005 compared to 20 million in the 1990s, MAP reported. Piracy costs Morocco MD 2 billion of economic losses per annum with an average rate of over 70pc in the sectors of software, music and cinema, according to the Communication Ministry and Le Bureau Marocain du Droit d'Auteur (Moroccan Office for Authors' Rights).
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Morocco/184415 
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