Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
January 28, 2006

Morocco, USA to promote cooperation in health sector.
Health: Civil 'War' Over Condoms.
MCC assistance to Morocco could reach up to USD 500Mn.
Moroccan women push for more positive political involvement.
'Relatively moderate' growth of GDP in 2005, HCP.
Morocco: Too Many Newspapers, Not Enough Readers.
Sheltering from Shocks. Volume 83 26.01.2006

Morocco, USA to promote cooperation in health sector.
Rabat, Jan. 23

Moroccan and US National Institutes of Health agreed to promote cooperation in health sector under an entente declaration signed, here Monday. The declaration covers various health sectors from fundamental and biomedical research to infectious diseases and cancer. Through their agencies, the two parties will also conduct common research projects, scientific workshops and training.

Moroccan minister of health, Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah said the convention "comes after the entry in force of the Free Trade Agreement between the USA and Morocco and the adoption of the Pharmacy Code in Morocco, which opens new perspectives for common research." Director of the US NIH, Elias Zerhouni stressed the need to develop further relations between the two countries' scientists, calling for developing technological and technical competences. Zerhouni, who is leading an INH delegation on a visit to Morocco, will meet several Moroccan officials notably from INH and Pasteur Institute.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/morocco_usa_to_prom/view 
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Health: Civil 'War' Over Condoms.
Abderrahim El Ouali CASABLANCA, Jan 26 (IPS)

When the Moroccan Association for the Fight Against AIDS launched a campaign last month to raise money to fight AIDS, it had no idea it would have another kind of fight on its hands. The association is now fighting Islamists who accuse it if spreading "the culture of the condom" through its 'telethon' to raise funds. The telethon was a live programme on the 2M TV channel Dec. 9 to raise funds for people suffering from HIV or AIDS. It followed two earlier telethons for the disabled and for children suffering from heart conditions. The television campaign organised by the Moroccan Association for Fight Against AIDS (ALCS), an independent group, raised 240,000 euro (295,000 dollars).

The organisation says about 16,000 people in Morocco have either HIV or AIDS, mainly through heterosexual transmission. But no accurate official figures are available, and the incidence could be far higher. Morocco has a population of 32 million. Many artists from Morocco and from other countries participated in the television campaign. Some people who are HIV positive came on air to tell their stories.

With the awareness the programme spread came also the opposition led by the Islamist Party (PJD). "The telethon held up use of condoms as the best way to protect oneself from HIV," said a long article in the PJD daily Attajdid (The Revival). In promoting use of the condom, the association was "copying foreign programmes and trying to implement them in Moroccan society without regard to Morocco as an Islamic country." The article condemned the organisers over "the condoms used in the telethon décor designed by a French architect who had been brought to Morocco especially for this." The article said "fidelity to religion and marriage" are the way to fight AIDS, which it described as "divine punishment".

Such suggestions have been strongly challenged. "This is neither new nor accidental in our political and community life," writer Mohamed Janboubi told IPS. His recent work 'Marabouts in Morocco' that shows that ancient religious leaders in Morocco fought against fundamentalism and obscurantism has been a bestseller in Morocco. "Whenever civil society starts a courageous initiative it has to face brakes through the mass media," he said. The Islamist opposition to the initiative, he said, is "a too narrow comprehension of Islam, and is an attempt to impose this comprehension on others." Janboubi added: "The problem is not an event, a telethon, an initiative or even a condom or a sexual culture. It is deeper than that. The problem is the attempt to stop the evolution of society."

The new danger is Wahhabi thought, an extremist interpretation of Islam that originated in Saudi Arabia, he said. "This is creating groups that are infiltrating popular environments, and especially young people with limited school levels in the marginalised areas." Traditionally, "Moroccan society has always been immunised against religious extremism," he said.

This is not the first such protest by Islamists. The PJD launched a similar campaign against a cartoon book produced to make youngsters aware of the danger of AIDS, and which presented the condom as a safe option. The publishers were condemned for using a mosque as a background to some of the cartoons. That Islamist opposition has extended to tourism.. The Islamists blame "sexual tourism" for the spread of AIDS in Morocco. Morocco aims to attract 10 million visitors by 2010. Its economy rests considerably on tourism. Over recent years Islamists have invaded beaches and countered sunbathing and swimming by organising collective prayers.. That came to be known as the war of the beaches. Now it is the war of the condoms. (END/2006)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31918 
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MCC assistance to Morocco could reach up to USD 500Mn.
Casablanca, Jan. 27

The assistance of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to the future projects in Morocco could be estimated between USD 300Mn to 500Mn, even more, announced, here Friday, the MCC Chief Executive Officer, John Danilovich. Speaking at a press conference at the end of his visit to Morocco, Danilovich said that Morocco could benefit from the most important amount ever granted by the MCC, underlining the quality of the Moroccan projects that were elaborated by an "exceptional" work team.

Hailing the excellent relations between the two countries, he stressed that Morocco was selected among the countries eligible to apply for the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) assistance for the important reforms the kingdom has ushered. The US official noted that Morocco meets the requirements of the MCC in terms of modernizing society, establishing transparency in public affairs management, facilitating administrative procedures and openness on the world market and economy. For his part, Director General of the North Promotion Agency, Driss Benhima, said that Morocco is identifying the projects that will be submitted to MCC.

Benhima pointed out that these projects, elaborated in the frame of discussions between various local agents, aim to fight poverty through stimulating growth, which is at the heart of the National Initiative for Human Development. During his visit to Morocco, Danilovich held several meetings with Moroccan officials and representatives of private sector and civil society. Morocco was also selected last year to benefit from this account, a move that was welcomed by President Bush and the former Secretary of State Colin Powell. Both of them had highlighted the political and economic reforms carried out under the leadership of King Mohammed VI. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), a U.S. government corporation designed to work with some of the poorest countries in the world, is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom, and investments in people that promote economic growth and elimination of extreme poverty.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box3/mcc_assistance_to_mo/view 
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Moroccan women push for more positive political involvement.
By Mawassi Lahcen. 22/01/2006

Moroccan women's organizations are calling for a revision of the constitution to encourage political participation among women. At a round table discussion organized last week in Casablanca entitled "Political participation among women: the democratic stakes," Moroccan women's associations launched an appeal for constitutional revision. They want to see greater political integration of women and are demanding that the principle of "equality of the sexes," as stipulated by the constitution, be replaced by the principle of "positive discrimination in favour of women". To advance their claims, women's groups have started preparing a co-ordinated network that will create a common strategy leading up to the 2007 elections.

The experience of the last elections, which took place in 2002, still reverberates among women as 35 women were elected to parliament. This was due to the application of the national list, a feature that set aside a quota of 30 seats for women in the first chamber of parliament. However, local elections, in which no such quota system existed, were a total failure for women. Out of some 6,000 candidates only 127 women were elected.

Why was there such a difference in voting results? Khadiga Errebbah, president of the Moroccan Women's Democratic Association (ADFM), says the crushing defeat in local elections may have been the result of a political backlash caused by the application of the national list. The consequence: women could not win "In the local elections, protests were voiced about the anti-constitutional nature of the women-only list, which was considered contrary to the principle of equality in the constitution," Errebbah says. "And the consequence: women could not win. Especially as they were either shown at the ends of the lists - priority being given to men - or that they were put forward by their organizations in regions where the party was not represented."

This is why women are now calling for "the constitutionalisation of the principle of positive discrimination." For her part, Habiba Ezahi from the Women's Rights Defence Association says the next elections will be the first that Morocco has organized since the application of personal status laws. She is proposing to use this progress to give further support to women's participation in politics. "Nevertheless," Ezahi says, "the political parties' negative attitude in this respect makes it necessary to open up a serious dialogue between women's associations and political parties so we can arrive at a contractual programme to promote political participation among women." Sabah Chraibi from The Moroccan Association for the Promotion of Women's Enterprise (ESPOD) has taken a more wide-ranging stance. "The concept of political participation among women must be seen in general terms and not limited simply to receiving political mandates and accessing government posts," Chraibi says. She also underlined the need for women's associations to train and advise young women who want to be involved in politics.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2006/01/22/feature-01   
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'Relatively moderate' growth of GDP in 2005, HCP.
Rabat, Jan 25

The growth rate of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2005 was "relatively moderate, as it was slowed down by a setback of the primary activities," said, Wednesday, a report of the High Commissioner for Planning (HCP). The report states, however, that the indications of the non-agricultural sectors in Q2 suggest a 1.2% growth rate. The report underlines the increasingly competitive international environment which marked Q2 of 2005, especially the unprecedented upsurge of oil and raw material prices.

The report notes that the mining sector benefited from this environment, while the building and transportation fields took advantage, espectively, of the large infrastructure projects, and the consolidation of air and railway transportation prices, and the growth of telecommunications. Household consumption performed well thanks to the slight increase of the cost-of-living, and of employees' wages, it said. The document forwards a 13% increase of imports, while exports only advanced by 4.6% in comparison to 2004, noting, on the other hand, that the increasing oil bill has worsened the commercial deficit by 23%, and contributed to raising the budgetary deficit to 5% of the GDP, against 3.5% only in 2004.
HCP also said that the unemployment rate has increased 0.5% in 2005 to reach 10.9% instead of 10.4% in 2004. The report hailed the performance of the Moroccan stock-exchange, which rose 22.5%, and registered a 176.8% increase in the annual turnover.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/relatively_moderate/view 
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Morocco: Too Many Newspapers, Not Enough Readers.

The newspaper and magazine market in Morocco remains very small and lacks growth prospects. Compared to its neighbors of Algeria and Tunisia, it is lagging behind by far. This assessment was made this week by industry players during a conference organized by the World Association of Newspapers, Morocco's editors association Fédération Marocaine des Editeurs de Journaux (FMEJ) and the press freedom study center (Centre d'Etudes sur la Liberté de la Presse).

Despite a tightening of press freedom in Tunisia, circulation figures in that country are higher than those of Morocco. Official statistics show that circulation in Tunisia is 480,000 per day, versus 390,000 in Morocco. This is also despite a major difference in population sizes, considering Tunisia's population is about one fourth of that of Morocco. The comparison with Algeria shows even bigger gaps. In Algeria, which has a comparable population size, newspaper circulation is 1.216 million daily. Overall, the penetration rate for daily newspapers in readership terms is 13 per 1,000 people in Morocco, versus 38 in Algeria and 48 in Tunisia.

Within Morocco, there are also important differences between the local press and its foreign counterpart. Although the local press accounts for 67% of circulation, more than half of the revenues are taken by foreign newspapers sold in that country. But the market is also characterized by a plethora of publications which target small readerships and circulations making the establishment of a vibrant media enterprise almost impossible to achieve. There are not less than 700 titles competing for less than 400,000 readers. Some 6% of the market is controlled by daily newspapers while weekly publications have 24% share of the market. Some 43% of global sales is controlled by monthly publications, while quarterly journals and other publications hold a 27% market share.
http://www.north-africa.com/free.htm 
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Sheltering from Shocks. Volume 83 26.01.2006

The first set of Moroccan macroeconomic indicators for 2005 shows an economy that has managed to absorb some sizable shocks. At the same time, the country has also managed to maintain stability and decent growth, while investing in its future development. Although Morocco faced a number of significant constraints last year, its economy grew by 1.8%, Mohamed Chafiki, head of surveys and financial forecasting at the Ministry of Finance and Privatisation, told Moroccan press agency MAP at the close of the year. The figure, however, falls significantly short of the government's 3% target for 2005.

Then last week, the High Commission for Planning (Haut-Commissariat au Plan, HCP) released the December and 2005 inflation figures. According to the HCP, the cost of living index (Indice du Coût de la Vie, ICV) grew by just 1% in 2005, down from 1.5% in 2004. These indicators underline the hard times Morocco went through last year, due to both internal and external shocks.

The main internal setback was the poor performance of the agricultural sector, which typically accounts for around 15% of GDP. According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the 2005 cereal crop was down 57% on 2004, and 35% on the 1999-2004 average, due to both adverse weather conditions and a locust attack. With cereals accounting for 30% of overall agricultural production, the sector's added value dropped 12.5% over 2004.

At the same time, Morocco, just like any other non-oil producing country, suffered from the price of crude oil on the international market. Although world energy prices reached dizzy heights in 2005, the domestic price of fuels was maintained at reasonable levels with the help of the Compensation Fund. Therefore, the surging energy bill has not impacted consumption and investment too badly, resulting in a limited short-term effect on growth. Yet it has weighed heavily on the country's public finances, with the Compensation Fund owing the oil companies servicing the domestic market a hefty Dh7.14bn ($804m), or roughly 1.5% of GDP, at the end of the year.

It has also triggered inflation in transport services. According to the HCP, the transport and communications category recorded the steepest rise, surging 4.5%, mostly due to hikes in taxi and private public transport companies fares. These sectors nevertheless recorded strong growth at 4.7%, mostly due to telecoms, with Maroc Telecom increasing its turnover by 18.5%.

More importantly maybe, the ongoing debate on the necessary liberalisation of fuel prices, the pegging of which is poised to soon become unbearable for state coffers, may deal consumer confidence a serious blow - as the prospect of brisk hikes to come, combined with widespread concern about the limited rainfalls this year, may impact consumption negatively.

This has actually started to produce its effects, with the economy's main growth engine, internal demand, down from 8% in 2004 to just 3.5% in 2005. Although figures are not available as yet, household consumption is thought to have increased even more slowly, or even stagnated.

The good news is that other sectors performed well in 2005, with overall non-agricultural GDP growth nearing 4.4%, slightly down from 4.7% in 2004. Chafiki pointed out that this was the country's best non-agricultural performance of the decade.

Top within this was the mining and energy sector, which grew by 5.7% thanks to the good performance of the Cherifian Office of Phosphates (OCP), and to increased value-added in the energy sector. The tertiary sector also grew by an encouraging 4.9%, mostly due the sustained development of retail.

The end of the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) on January 1, 2005 also imposed a strong shock on the country's key textile sector, with exports of clothes down 8.1%, and a 14% decrease in exports of hosiery items up to October 2005.

Despite these adverse conditions, the government managed to increase public investment by 11.5%, while maintaining the public deficit at 3.5% of GDP, excluding extraordinary expenses linked to an early retirement programme for civil servants aimed at decreasing the government payroll. This was made possible thanks to improved tax collection, with VAT up 10%, registration fees up 15% and direct taxes up 18%.

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