Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
April 15, 2006

Spain's Isofoton to install over 34,000 solar cells in Moroccan rural areas.
Moroccan bookshops: A sector in difficulty
Morocco craves foreign investment.
Amazigh association seeks alternative to Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture.
WB grants Morocco USD 120Mn loan.
Spanish NGO donates a thousand book to Rabat institute.

Spain's Isofoton to install over 34,000 solar cells in Moroccan rural areas.
Madrid, Apr. 10

Spanish international top ten photo-voltaic cell manufacturer, Isofoton, will install 34,500 solar cells in thirteen Moroccan provinces, said Monday the Spanish firm. Isofoton has recently won a call for tenders of the national electricity office (ONE) to provide electricity to several rural areas having difficulty to access the national electricity web. ONE project is part of a policy aiming at raising the rate of renewable energies in energetic production from 4 to 10% by 2012, and to increase the contribution of these energies to the satisfaction of electric demand to 20%.
A large solar water-heater project is also planned through the installation of 20,000 sq. meters of solar collectors per year.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/imp_social/spain_s_isofoton_to/view 
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Moroccan bookshops: A sector in difficulty.
By Hassan Benmehdi 11/04/2006

Having functioned for years as places of intellectual exchange, Moroccan bookshops are virtually shunned presently. In Morocco, bookshops used to be desirable locations as intellectuals, students and avid readers would spend hours rooting through well-stocked shelves searching for a new publication or a masterpiece which had impacted the world of literature or universal thought. Today, the sector seems to have been plunged into an endemic crisis. Despite the organisation of shows and fairs in several towns across the country, the market is still struggling to organise itself and make its presence felt.

Apart from a few bestsellers or didactic works, sales are becoming more seasonal and only reach prosperous levels at the start of each school year. However, most people still see bookshops as appropriate means of accessing information, ideas and fictional works. In the face of a reading crisis, publishers have reacted by increasing the number of titles, shortening print runs, reducing display times for books on the shelves, and increasing prices. "We're producing more and more books, but for fewer and fewer readers," Seddik Z, an expert on the subject, said.

Another aspect making the situation harder is the absence of professional booksellers. "We have very few booksellers, by which I mean people who have appropriate training and are capable of recommending this or that book according to the present cultural situation. They must be up-to-date on everything going on in the field: publishing, publication dates, authors, discipline ...," Seddik pointed out.

The development of new information technologies has made the situation harder still. Many people prefer looking at a book on the Internet rather than buying it. "The only way out of this situation lies in developing and teaching a love of reading among young people," Seddik noted. Souad Balafrej, who runs the Kalila wa Dimna bookshop in Rabat, deplores the ever-decreasing number of readers in Morocco and cites several causes, such as the high illiteracy rate and stagnation of the translation sector. Recalling the uniqueness of the bookseller trade, she says the profession brings together the aspects commerce and culture. The first aspect forces booksellers to open their shops to meet their financial obligations. The cultural side calls for intellectual versatility, guiding the customer, and most of all gaining his loyalty.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2006/04/11/feature-02 
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Morocco craves foreign investment.

Morocco wants to double foreign investment to 5bn euros (£3.5bn; $6bn) a year to boost economic growth, a top government official has said. Speaking to the Reuters news agency, Hassan Bernoussi, of the government's Investment Department, said Morocco would also open up key industries. Investment is up fivefold over the past decade and is expected to reach 3.5bn euros this year. But that is not enough for the state to hit its 7% economic growth-rate target.

Better looking
Morocco posted an average growth rate of 4.6% between 2001 and 2004, and 1.8% in 2005. It is forecast at 5.4% for this year. However, analysts said that Morocco needed to post growth of 6% in order to create enough jobs to cut an urban unemployment level of about 19%, as well as to finance large-scale infrastructure projects such as upgrading roads and ports. Morocco has been undertaking economic reforms, including looking at ways of cutting its debt and budget deficit, and this has been a key factor in attracting foreign firms, Mr Bernoussi told Reuters. Investors, both foreign and domestic, were keen on power, telecommunications, and utility companies once markets were opened up, he explained. Morocco also has agreements with tourism and real estate firms. As well as the internal changes, Morocco has looked abroad, striking free trade deals with the European Union and US. "These free-trade accords made Morocco more attractive for foreign investors, because the country becomes a platform for exports to foreign markets," Mr Bernoussi said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4902978.stm 
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Amazigh association seeks alternative to Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture.
By Mawassi Lahsan, 12/04/2006

The Amazigh Network for Citizenship association wants to propose a draft law to establish an alternative body to the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture. The Amazigh Network for Citizenship will organise a national seminar from Friday (14 April) through Sunday, inviting more than 40 Amazigh associations, with the intention of discussing and approving a draft law to establish an alternative body to the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture and forming a pressure group to advocate it and bring it into existence.

Ahmed Arhamoosh, president of the association, told Magharebia that the aim of the initiative was to create a national body for Amazigh language, culture and civilisation that has proper independence and extensive powers in making political decisions, including the authority to have laws promulgated. Arhamoosh explained that his association worked on the proposed draft law for a year. "We carried out thorough research on the laws regulating similar bodies, particularly the law for the Mohammad VI Academy for the Arabic Language, the law for the Grievances Board and the Authority for Equity and Conciliation. We have also relied on the Paris Declaration on Sectoral National Bodies."

The draft put forward by the association aims at broadening the representation of Amazigh associations within the body, proposing that the body's Executive Council be made up of 44 members. Membership would include 20 representatives from Amazigh associations and representatives from every government sector concerned with Amazigh affairs -- such as the Ministries of Finance, Justice, Education, Planning, Civil Service, and Culture. The draft law also proposes that the body's Executive Council includes representatives from university bodies, as well as lawyers' and women's organisations.

"We are trying to address the weaknesses in the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture, as it is a consultative body for the King and not a decision-making body, with a budget dependant on the Royal Palace, which hampers its independence. In regard to representation, we have found that only four Amazigh associations are represented in the Royal Institute, whereas more than 100 Amazigh associations exist in Morocco," Arhamoosh said.
"The other issue which we believe constitutes an obstacle to the institute's effectiveness is the absence of any relationship between it and the government, which sets its decisions at cross-purposes with the government's directives. Therefore, we have suggested that there be representatives from the most important ministries on the Executive Council of the alternative body proposed by us, to ensure co-ordination between the concerns of the body and those of the government."

Arhamoosh said that 11 Amazigh associations have approved the draft so far and he hopes that the number will reach between 35 and 40 during the national debate it is organising. "We hope we are able to marshal the support necessary to place the draft officially before the Head of State during the coming month of May and to lobby for it in order to get it approved as a law by the Council of Ministries," he said. This initiative is taking place only a few weeks before the end of the term of office of the existing Administration Council of the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture, which was founded four years ago on the initiative of the King Mohammed VI.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2006/04/12/feature-01 
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WB grants Morocco USD 120Mn loan.
Rabat, Apr. 10

The World Bank has approved, Monday, a loan amounting to USD 120Mn to finance the support program of public administration reform
(PARAP) in Morocco. The loan contract, which was signed by Moroccan finance minister, Fathallah Oualalou and WB resident representative, Ferid Belhaj, provides for the reimbursement of the loan in 20 years, with an eight-year grace period. Today's is the WB second loan to Morocco to finance public administration reform, as a first one of USD 100Mn was entirely cashed in 2004.

PARAP seeks to provide Morocco with a modern, proximity administration able to ensure quality services. The program enjoys the support of the European Union and the African Development Bank. WB representative in Morocco hailed the north African kingdom as "an influential country in the MENA region" in the field of public administration reform, adding "the smooth but firm" reform process in Morocco "is a source of satisfaction for all those who work on Morocco." For his part, Oualalou said "this loan, exemplary in form and content, gives an appetite to go further in reforms."
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/wb_grants_morocco_us/view 
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Spanish NGO donates a thousand book to Rabat institute.
Rabat, Apr. 10

Spanish NGO Solidarios para el Desarrallo donated on Saturday a thousand books to the library of Hispanic and Portuguese Studies Institute (IEHL) in Rabat. IEHL conducts studies and research on the civilizations and cultures of Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. President of the Spanish NGO, José Carlos Garcia Fajardo, said Solidarios para el Desarrallo donation, made on the occasion of a visit of 54 Spanish students to Morocco, comprises books dealing with a wide range of issues. He said Spanish students' visit to the north African country will allow them to discover Moroccan culture and traditions and the links binding Rabat and Madrid.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/culture/spanish_ngo_donates/view 
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