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

USAID and Moroccan government seek to boost trade and employment in Morocco.
Medical information Website launched in Morocco.
Majority of abused women endure violence from husband, immediate relatives
Majority of Moroccans see duty in taking charge of old parents.
Morocco expects GDP to grow 3.5% in 2007
Illiteracy rate continue to decline in Morocco, Minister
TV is still going strong in Morocco. 
Morocco's Ait-Ben-Haddou: When the people leave, the wind and sand take over.

USAID and Moroccan government seek to boost trade and employment in Morocco.
13/07/2006

The Moroccan government and the US Agency for International Development are working together to help Moroccans take advantage of the free trade agreement through initiatives such as shifting agriculture to more valuable products, implementing required legal and policy changes and promoting Moroccan businesses in the United States. The Moroccan Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Economic Upgrading and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) are working together on a project called New Business Opportunities (NBO), which aims to boost Moroccan employment and help Moroccan exporting companies gain maximum benefit from the American market.

The project, which is part of a larger USAID-Moroccan government agreement signed in April 2004, is expected to generate turnover of $175m and create up to 10,000 jobs. Following the US-Morocco Free Trade Agreement that went into effect in January, Moroccans are looking at ways to shift employment from traditional agriculture to higher value products. According to a statement on the USAID website, the agency is already addressing concerns about the potential impacts of free trade on Moroccan agriculture, which employs approximately 40 per cent of the country's workforce. "As employment inevitably declines in a more productive agriculture sector, more jobs will be needed in manufacturing and services," said the statement.

At the same time, USAID says it is helping Moroccan enterprises take full advantage of the free trade agreement. It expects businesses to "take full advantage of opportunities offered to young men between the ages of 15 and 34, who currently experience unemployment rates as high as 30 per cent in some urban areas."

USAID is also assisting Morocco in implementing legal and policy changes required by the free trade agreement.
"Priorities include stricter enforcement of intellectual property rights, increased transparency in the adoption of new laws and regulations, investment simplification, revisions to tax incentives, bankruptcy reform, and support for financial markets reform," according to a USAID report on Morocco. "USAID has a lot of support in Morocco from the leadership of the country and the parliament. You need to have a wide and inclusive relationship," Oliver Wilcox, USAID Democracy and Governance advisor for the Middle East and North Africa, told Magharebia.

According to the Morocco Times, the project will provide support to business associations to help promote Moroccan industry to their US counterparts through presence at US trade shows, promotion of Morocco in key US trade journals and facilitation of trade and investment missions of US buyers and investors to Morocco. Newspapers quoted US ambassador to Morocco Thomas Riley as saying, "We have launched this programme to help Moroccan firms penetrate the American market and identify the best American partners." "There is an advantage to presenting projects as technical support. There are things Moroccans have already expressed an interest in and are already trying to do," said Wilcox. Hassan Benmehdi in Casablanca contributed to this report http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2006/07/13/feature-01
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Medical information Website launched in Morocco.
By Oumnia Guedda

Mediguide Maroc Company has launched a new website containing information and contacts of doctors, pharmacies and hospitals in Morocco. The new website of the Moroccan medical directory (www.mediguide-maroc.com), however, is not only an online directory. It is also designed to provide visitors with easy, fast and free medical and paramedical information in different cities of the kingdom.

Initiated by doctors, computer specialists and economists, the website is a reference and a reliable source of information. The database is thus very rich and complete thanks to Doctor Abdelaziz Hsseissen's ten years of hard work. In fact, Doctor Hsseissen has toured Morocco many times to gather medical and paramedical information.

The website is characterised by its simplicity as this is the main criterion of its success. Its main objective is to allow visitors to make simple search and easily find their enquiries. The database was brought to completion by a computer specialist in order to render it more ergonomic.

The contacts are classified by names, regions and specialties. And to overcome difficulties related to the French transcription of Arab names, many research options were set up. For instance, visitors can type only one letter of the name to have the contacts of all doctors whose names start with the typed letter.

Such an online source of information was needed as the sanitary sector is important in the Moroccan society. The number of doctors is increasing, the specialties are becoming more and more diversified, and the needs are also rising. As Morocco experiences currently a remarkable boom in terms of Internet and computer science equipment and as research through the net has become a daily process, the success of the website is certainly on the way.
http://www.moroccotimes.com/paper/article.asp?idr=11&id=15934
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Majority of abused women endure violence from husband, immediate relatives
Rabat, July 06

91.7% of abused women say they have underwent abuse from their husbands or from persons with whom they have intimate relationships, said a Wednesday report of the Moroccan network of call centers for women having endured violence. The report of the network (French acronym ANARUZ, created in 2004), which was presented in Rabat cited testimonies of 864 women who endured violence, and 1,779 cases of violence documented on September 1st, 2005 through February 6, 2006. The report found that husbands top violence perpetrators with 79.1% of the total number, followed by ex-husbands, fiancés and boy friends, with 7.9% and 4.7% respectively, then family members and in-laws with 4.5%

According to the document, legal violence is the most registered one with 43.9% of the cases; second in the row is physical violence then psychological violence with 26.2% and 18.7%. As to sexual abuse and economic violence, they bring up the rear with 9% and 2.2%, respectively.
The figures also show that 7.7% of the calls received by ANARUZ come from women having received higher education, while 38.5% from illiterate women and 63.7% come from women with a primary education level. The report was devised in cooperation with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Development Fund for Women (UNDFW).
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/imp_social/majority_of_abused_w/view
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Majority of Moroccans see duty in taking charge of old parents.
Casablanca, June 30

97% of Moroccans think it is a duty to take charge of old parents and only 2% think it is up to the State or to charity organizations to shoulder the responsibility, a poll on values says. This fact makes 65% of parents says children are a security for their future, says the study conducted by several experts for the Hassan II University of Mohammedia, 60 km south or Rabat.

The decline of the fertility rate, namely to an average of 3,72 children per family, the study says, shows that larger families are less sought and the ideal number is 2.92 children per family. 46% of respondents say the number of children they would like to have is two, while those preferring 3 and 4 children is 28 and 18%, respectively. 74% says they are favourable for dialog with children, while only 8% are still for old practices in parents-children relationship, the study says, adding however that conversely 79% of respondents see that wife obedience is a key factor in family entente.

79% of the study sample says they are favourable for the freedom of male children to chose their wives, while 67% expressed the same view regarding female children. 57% of respondents are for the autonomy of the couple and prefer living in a nuclear family, while 39% would prefer to live within an extended family. 31% visit with parents at least once in a month, 46% rarely and 15% visit only during various celebrations. The study, that concerned a 1.000 people sample nationwide, set as objective to outline the values of the Moroccan society in reference to family, tradition, religion, politics, work and leisure.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/imp_social/majority_of_moroccan/view
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Morocco expects GDP to grow 3.5% in 2007
Rabat, July 14

Morocco expects Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to grow 3.5% in the 2007 fiscal year, faster than the currently GDP of 7.2%, noted, here Thursday, Moroccan Finances minister, Fathallah Oualalou. Speaking before the government cabinet, the minister underlined that the receipts and expenditures forecasts based on macroeconomic data predict an inflation rate below 2% and an average oil price about 70 dollars per barrel in 2007.

Oualalou affirmed that the first five months of the current year recorded positive results in terms of receipts, adding, however, that expenditures could face some constraints due notably to the increase of the compensation fund charges for subsiding oil prices and salaries' increase in some sectors, such as health and education, noted government spokesperson, Nabil Benabdellah at a press briefing following the cabinet meeting.

Oualalou also underlined the importance that the 2007 bill of finances grants to the social aspect, noting the important measures included in this respect in terms of infrastructure, sectoral policies, covering the compensation expenditures, continuation of structural and sectoral reforms and setting up a favorable framework to promote employment and improve citizens’ living conditions.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/morocco_expects_gdp/view
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Illiteracy rate continue to decline in Morocco, Minister

Moroccan Premier Driss Jettou announced on Friday that illiteracy rate has declined to 39% nationwide, adding that some two million people have attended literacy courses during the past four years. "The qualitative performance is a strong indicator that shows our capacity to curb the illiteracy plague," said Jettou at the academic year end ceremony organised by the State Secretariat in charge of Literacy and non-Formal Education. Jettou said that the national literacy programme draws inspiration from various international recommendations and conferences on "education for all". He added that owing to the importance of the programme, the government has established a department dedicated to fighting illiteracy and coordinating national efforts in this field, and adopted a strategy that provides the needed means to implement the programme.
http://www.moroccotimes.com/News/article.asp?id=15968
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TV is still going strong in Morocco.             
11-07-2006

Although 75% of households in Morocco own a satellite dish, 93% still tune into terrestrial TV, indicating that local terrestrial channels still have a strong foothold in the country. A new Arab Advisors Group comprehensive survey of GSM users across Morocco provides deep insights into the media usage patterns and habits of this major North African market. The survey reveals that while satellite dishes are widespread across the country, terrestrial TV remains prominent with 93% of respondents stating that they still tune into it. News is the most-watched type of TV program in Morocco, and music remains the primary reason for listening to the radio. In terms of Internet usage, Google is the most frequented search engine amongst Moroccan users, while Hotmail is the most popular email provider.

A new major report, “Morocco Media Survey 2006” was released by the Arab Advisors Group on June 26, 2006. The 96-page report, which has 120 detailed exhibits, provides the results of a major comprehensive survey of media usage patterns amongst GSM subscribers from different households across Morocco. The survey’s fieldwork was conducted in April and May 2006. The report provides detailed statistical analyses and relevant cross tabulations of the results. Please contact the Arab Advisors Group to get a copy of the report’s Table of Contents and the survey questions.

“Satellites are widespread amongst GSM users in Morocco, with three-fourths of respondents to the survey stating that their household owns a satellite dish. This is a large percentage by any standards and indicates that Moroccan viewers are tuning into the abundance of free-to-air satellite channels available in the region.” Ms. Nadine Usta, Arab Advisors Research Analyst, wrote in the report. “Still, terrestrial TV has a large audience in Morocco, with 93.1% of respondents stating that they watch it. The fact that this percentage is even higher than the percentage of those who own a satellite bodes well for the future of the country’s terrestrial TV industry,” she added.

The survey findings revealed that a majority of Moroccan households (77.9%) tune in to terrestrial TV to watch movies, while 66.6% watch movies on FTA Sat TV channels. Close to 30% of households surveyed used DVDs and a minuscule minority (less than 1%) has Pay TV.

Arab Advisors Group’s major analytical survey of Morocco’s main cities’ populations was scientifically done. The survey involved face to face interviews with 700 respondents from different households in Grand Casablanca, Rabat/Sale, Agadir, Marrakech, Tangir/Tetouan, and Fass, selected randomly in a manner proportionate to the population size of the different areas. All respondents were above 15 years of age and users of GSM services; as such, this random survey is of Morocco’s current GSM users and not of the country’s total population. By end of 2005, Morocco’s GSM penetration stood at 40.8%.

The Arab Advisors Group divided the survey questionnaire into main sections, providing a balanced focus for collecting data on the following areas:

General TV viewing patterns and habits, q
Major Arabic and non-Arabic q satellite TV channels watched,
Credibility of satellite news channels, q
Pay TV, q
Terrestrial TV, q
Radio, q
Movie viewing, and q
Internet media. q
© 2006 Al Bawaba
http://www.albawaba.com/en/countries/Morocco/200626
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Morocco's Ait-Ben-Haddou: When the people leave, the wind and sand take over.

A mountain of rock suddenly rises up out of the endless wilderness of sand. A closer look indicates that it is inhabited. This is Ait-Ben-Haddou, located on a hillside 33 kilometers to the west of Ouarzazate in southern Morocco. Some 50 households and 450 people lived there at the beginning of the 20th century, before the tide of modernization lured them away. Today, seven families still live on the land of their forebears ….. (click on the link below to read more) July 14, 2006
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/travel/news/20060714p2g00m0dm038000c.html
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