Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
April 14 , 2007

World Bank grants Morocco $43.2m for solar power plant .
23/04/2007

The World Bank granted Morocco $43.2m late last week to build an Integrated Solar Combined Cycle Power Plant (ISCC), Le Matin daily reported. The plant will have a 472-megawatt (MW) capacity, 20 MW of which will be generated by solar energy. The plant should be completed by 2012 at a total cost of $568m, which will be co-financed by the Moroccan Electricity Office (ONE), the Global Environment Facility and the African Development Bank. This project responds to Morocco's urgent need for new power generating capacity as the government seeks to diversify power generation, in order to reduce the country’s energy dependence.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2007/04/23/newsbrief-05
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65% of Moroccan households know of Family Code .
Rabat, Apr. 27

65% of Moroccan households know of the Family Code, adopted in 2003 to grant equal rights and responsibilities to the couple in the household and serve the interests of the child. According to figures, released Thursday at a meeting organized by the Forum of Moroccan women MPs, 51% of these households are in the rural areas, while 48% in the urban milieu. 38% of women and 32% of men know of the Family Code, notes the survey that touched on women’s situation in the society. The survey notes that 75% of the polled people think there is an evolution of women's presence in the public sectors, while 92% agreed to resort to justice to get their divorce with the compulsory presence of the woman. Touching on women's access to work market, 21% of the polled people deem it a natural right, while 24% are against women’s work and 18% considered it as a sort of competition to men.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box5/65_of_moroccan_hous/view
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Morocco to install 40k sqm solar collectors per annum, academic.
Rabat, Apr. 26

Morocco will install some 40,000 sq meters of solar collectors per annum, to reach 400,000 sqm by 2012 against 160,000 currently, said, here on Thursday, the Renewable Energies Group chairman at Oujda University. In an interview, on Thursday, with the French-speaking daily "Le Matin du Sahara et du Maghreb", Ahmed Mezrhab noted that part of its efforts to raise by 10% renewable energies’ contribution to the national energy balance by 2012, Morocco endeavors to adopt and popularize energy-saving legislations for domestic and industrial uses and replace incandescent lamps with fluorescent ones that consume low energy. He also noted that several incentives will be set up with the aim of promoting the use of renewable energies in Morocco, including mainly exemption from tax income during the first years, tax on capital and payroll tax for businesses working in the field of renewable energies.

Morocco has recently set up a plan aiming to diversify energy sources and develop renewable energies. The National Plan in this field includes new projects to produce electricity from solar and wind energies. It aims to provide services of sustainable energy in the rural world, equip 150,000 houses, build 1,000 energy houses, and efficiently manage energy consumption by the industrial sector.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/imp_social/morocco_to_install_4/view
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Morocco to lease agricultural estates to private investors.
By Mawassi Lahcen 23/04/2007

Morocco recently announced plans to lease 116 farms to private investors, in a bid to increase efficiency and productivity in key agricultural sectors. Mohand Laenser, Morocco’s Minister of Farming, Rural Development and Fishing announced Friday (April 20th) on the sidelines of the International Farming Conference in Marrakech that the government will offer 116 state-owned farms to private investors. Laenser said the Moroccan government chose to lease these estates since Moroccan law does not currently permit the sale of the state’s agricultural holdings.

This new offer comes after the success of the country's first agricultural joint venture two years ago. That process made possible the leasing of 164 estates totalling 41,000 hectares. The portion of foreign investors leasing land in the first venture was 14%. Laenser said that the government’s aim with the new leaseholds is to boost efficiency on estates were state companies have failed to manage them effectively. Many such farms accumulated considerable debt as a result of poor planning and declining profitability. Lessees will operate the farms under contract for periods ranging from 17 to 40 years in duration. The process, according to Laenser, will differ based on the size of the plot. For the large, strategically significant estates, negotiations will be conducted directly with prospective investors. The smaller parcels of land will be offered up for competition in an international call for bids.

Laenser noted that the area subject to direct negotiations covers 8,250 hectares, encompassing 10 estates specialising in the production of citrus fruits, 9 estates specialising in the production of olives and 5 estates specialising in the production of select seeds. Laenser added that the government is endeavouring to keep the production specialities of these estates due to strategic considerations, especially in the case of estates that produce select seeds, pointing out that the production of these five estates meets 20% of Morocco’s needs for wheat seeds.

Laenser said the Moroccan government decided to leave the choice up to investors concerning the type of agricultural production they will undertake on the 92 estates of non-specialized land. "It’s true that the area of these estates, which amounts to 40,000 hectares, represents but a small portion of Morocco’s total agricultural areas, estimated at around 9 million hectares. But we want these estates to play a driving role in the Moroccan farming sector and to be exemplary and pioneering leaseholds on the technical level and the planning level," Laenser said. The official announcement of the call for bids took place on April 16th, and the government set September 12th as the deadline for receiving bids from investors interested in the venture.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/04/23/feature-01
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Morocco joins World Bank's low-risk countries category.

Morocco has joined the category of "low-risk" countries in the management of public finances, according to the latest World Bank report entitled "country financial accountability assessment." The report conducted a risk assessment on all methods, procedures and public finance management tools applied in Morocco, before its classification on a scale of four risk levels: low, average, important and high, the Moroccan News Agency (MAP) reported on Tuesday.

The reforms, undertaken over the past three years in Morocco, did not cause any risk increase despite of their number, scope and sensitivity, said the World Bank's report, which reviews the historical background of the reforms, to establish a diagnosis on their foundation, challenges, implementation and prospects of their development. While lauding these "important and innovative" reforms which have made Morocco's overall risk to remain at a lower level, the report however highlights several inadequacies in the country's public finance system. Source: Xinhua http://english.people.com.cn/200704/26/eng20070426_369831.html
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Morocco earmarks USD 43.5Mn to environment-friendly programs .
Rabat, Apr. 25

Morocco earmarked USD 43.5Mn to environment-friendly programs in 2007, revealed, here Wednesday, Prime minister, Driss Jettou. In a message read out on his behalf by the Minister of Territory Development, Water and Environment, Mohamed El Yazghi at the 5th National Council of environment, Mr. Jettou said Morocco is called to "endeavor for elaborating a national environment strategy of sustainable development, fruit of a large dialog based on realism and taking into consideration complementarity and integration requirements."

The condition of the success of this important project are guaranteed given that there is a political will (...) and an action aiming to define prior objectives and maximize the efficiency of available means, said Moroccan premier, recalling that the kingdom carried out during the past five years, several reforms that would undoubtedly contribute to make the environment issue one of the key elements in decision-making.

Echoing him, Finance minister, Fathallah Oualalou stressed that in 2007 some USD 43.5Mn were allotted to shoulder environment –friendly programs against USD 7.4Mn in 1999, recalling that Morocco has also implemented several environmental programs such as the National liquid sanitation program (worth USD 5.2Bn) that will benefit 10 million people, living in 260 cities and urban centers.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/general/morocco_earmarks_usd3966/view
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Morocco plans measures against migration of minors.
27/04/2007

Morocco's State Secretary in charge of Family, Childhood and the Disabled, Yasmina Baddou, voiced her government's determination to strengthen the fight against the illegal employment and migration of minors, ANSA reported on Thursday (April 26th). Speaking at a workshop in Rabat on illegal immigration, Baddou stressed that "strong political commitment is necessary" in this direction. She said her department's 2006-2016 national plan comprises a series of measures, including a plan to reintegrate these children socially, and media campaigns aimed at raising children's awareness of the risks posed by illegal migration.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2007/04/27/newsbrief-04
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Over 1 million tourists visited Morocco in 2007 Q1.
Rabat, Apr. 27

Some 1.25 million tourists visited Morocco in the first quarter of 2007, i.e. a 7% increase compared to the same period of 2006. According to the latest figures released by the Tourism Observatory, the French tourists topped the list with 458,000 tourists, followed by the Spaniards (266,000), the British (106,000), the Italians (56,000), the Belgians (55,000) and the Germans (53,000). Marrakech was the first destination, followed by Casablanca, Fès and Ouarzazate. Some 6.4 million tourists visited Morocco in 2006 compared to 4.4 million in 2002, while the number of night guests increased by 10%.

The government has taken a series of measures to promote tourism product through allotting it USD 6Mn every year, besides the budget destined to hotels and sector professionals. Morocco has elaborated a strategy, dubbed "Vision 2010", that aspires to attract 10 million tourists by 2010. This strategy also aims to create 160,000 beds, bringing the national capacity to 230,000 beds and to create some 600,000 new job opportunities. The Vision is meant to diversify the tourism product, develop training and partnership in the air transport and other related tourism fields and increase tourism contribution to GDP by 8.5% annually to reach 20% by 2010.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box3/over_1_million_touri/view
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'What a Wonderful World' to be screened in Washington International Film Festival.
Washington, Apr. 24

Faouzi Bensaidi's feature film "What a Wonderful World" is among the movies to be screened in the 21st edition of the International Film Festival due in Washington on 19 through 29 April. The Moroccan movie will be screened on 26 and 27. It tells of the day-to-day life of four utterly different characters living in the two-face city of Casablanca, which has the features of both an old town and a modern metropolis.

Kamal is a hired killer who receives orders by Internet. After finishing the job, he always invites his call girl Souad, before falling in love with the voice of Kenza, a female cop, who usually answers his calls. He then decides to go search for the woman before the voice. The characters are respectively played by Faouzi Bensaidi, Fatima Attif, and Nezha Rahil. The turning point happens when Hicham (El Mehdi Elaaroubi), a professional hacker dreaming of emigration to Europe, accidentally came across the killing contracts of Kamal.

Mr. Bensaidi started his career as a theater director and actor before directing in 1997 his first short film La Falaise (the cliff), which harvested 23 prizes from several international film festivals. Three years later, Mr. Bensaidi directed two short films Le Mur (the wall) and Trajets (routes), which were respectively awarded in Cannes and Venice. His first feature film Mille Mois (a thousand months), was awarded twice in the Cannes Festival.

The Washington International Film Festival will kick off by the movie La Môme (the girl) on French signer Edith Piaf re-titled Life in Pink for the American market. The festival also features many foreign films, focusing on modern French cinema. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/culture/what_a_wonderful_wo/view
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Only 9.5% of MPs in Arab countries are women, UN official.
Casablanca, Apr.25

Less than 9.5% of elected MPS are women in most of the Arab countries, which is even lesser than in the Sub-Saharan countries (16.8%), revealed, here Wednesday, Gender Advisor to the United Nations Development Funds for Women in North Africa (UNIFEM), Zineb Touimi-Benjelloun. There is no room for comparison between these figures and women's representativeness in Scandinavian countries (41.7%) and in Asia (16%), she said at a meeting on “Female MPs and Gender Approach.”

Underlining Morocco's efforts in promoting the status of women in social and economic development, she called on the North African country to further strengthen the action it has adopted to promote gender equality in all fields. Echoing her, the State Secretary in charge of the Family, Childhood and the Disabled, Yasmina Baddou stressed that Morocco's women-friendly initiatives are not an end in itself but a means to remove all obstacles hindering the legitimate ambitions of women to achieve real emancipation either in private or public life.

The new reforms of the Family Code that took place on October 10th, 2003 are very significant in the history of Moroccan women, in the sense that they grant equity, justice and dignity to women, who are also responsible for the progress of any given society. Held by the Moroccan NGO 2007 DABA, this meeting mustered several female MPs from Morocco, Europe, Africa and Arab countries. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/only_9.5_of_mps_in/view
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19% of magistrates in Morocco are women, conference.
Cairo, Apr. 20

There are 590 women magistrates in Morocco, i.e.19% of the total number of Moroccan magistrates (3,114 magistrates), according to figures released at a Moroccan-gyptian conference, held Thursday in the Egyptian capital. Speaking at a meeting about women's access to the Justice sector in Morocco, first Supreme Court public prosecutor, Fatima El Hallak said the increasing number of women working in the justice sector has had positive impact on the legal system, notably in terms of human rights respect. Touching on women's distribution in this sector, she noted that women constitute 44.17% of the criminal chamber staff, 26.10% at the trade chamber, 15.6% at the civil chamber and 5.2% at the administrative, social and personal status chambers. According to these figures, 387 women work in first instance courts as deputy-presidents, deputy public prosecutors or in the central administration of the justice ministry.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/19_of_magistrates_i/view
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Morocco's real estate sector contributes 7% to GDP .
27/04/2007

The real estate sector contributes 7% to Morocco's GDP, local press quoted Khalid Alioua, CEO of the state-owned Credit Imobilier et Hotelier bank, as saying on Thursday (April 26th) in Rabat, at a conference on the sector's financing. The sector plays an instrumental role in economic growth and development, he added. The official ascribed this performance to the emergence of large public and private real estate developers, adding that the state guaranteed up to 30% of all housing loans in 2006. Alioua insisted, however, that the development of real estate financing requires investments in low-cost housing construction, and the mutualisation of large projects funding. The services sector, including real estate, comprises 42.6% of Morocco’s GDP. Industry follows at a close second with 35.7% of GDP and agriculture comes in third with 21.7%.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2007/04/27/newsbrief-05
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Marrakech to host IPC athletics event for disabled.
27/04/2007

More than 140 athletes will take part in the 6th International Athletics Meeting for the Disabled, which will take place Saturday (April 28th) in Marrakech. The meeting is organized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), the Moroccan Association "Ennasser", the Arab Union of Handicapped and the Royal Moroccan Federation of Sports for the Disabled. Morocco will be represented by 19 athletes, France with 35 athletes, Algeria with 28, Tunisia with 10, the UAE with 22 and Spain with 12. The best-performing athletes will qualify for the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, joining those who already qualified at the IPC Athletics World Championships held last September in the Netherlands.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/sports/2007/04/27/newsbrief-02
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Wireless internet in Morocco.
By Adam Mahdi  24/04/2007

Wireless internet is on the rise in Morocco but is facing restrictions laid down by the National Telecommunications Regulation Agency. Magharebia speaks with Aziz Bouabe, managing director of FirstMile Telekom, to learn the latest news on developments in this high-tech sector. Deregulation of the telecommunications industry has led to sustained development of wireless internet technology, despite restrictions laid down by the National Telecommunications Regulation Agency (ANRT) which administers the sector. Aziz Bouabe, managing director of FirstMile Telekom, which specializes in wireless technology, discussed the current state of the Moroccan Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) market.

Magharebia: At what stage is Morocco’s wireless technology sector, in your opinion?
Aziz Bouabe: I think that as is the case in a variety of developing countries, Wi-Fi technology is at an early stage. In Morocco’s case, it is lagging behind because of a lack of activity on the part of telecoms operators. For example, on the European market operators have boosted Wi-Fi by increasing the number of hotspots since 2003. This has enabled people to use the technology more widely, both within companies and in people’s homes. Nonetheless, due to the deregulation of the ICT [Information and Communications Technology] market and telecommunications in particular, the trend is moving in the other direction because new entrants to the market are investing heavily in wireless services and technology. On the other hand, the country is suffering from a lack of qualified staff in the field. We have plenty of landline network experts but very few specialists in wireless technology. We need to do something about all these issues because Wi-Fi represents a real opportunity to develop ICT in this country. It’s a viable alternative to our costly cable network both in terms of price and the time it takes to set up.

Magharebia: What do you think of Morocco’s potential for developing this technology?
Bouabe: I’m optimistic about the future of Wi-Fi. It’s a huge growth area internationally. For both business and private customers, using wireless technology makes more sense from both a financial and a technical point of view than using landline technology. Moroccan operators are now beginning to turn to Wi-Fi and are setting up hotspots in airports, hotels and public places. With regard to the human resources issue, young graduates arriving on the labour market with strong backgrounds in wireless technology are beginning to eat away at the lack of skilled workers.

Magharebia: What about the regulatory restrictions on Wi-Fi use?
Bouabe: Wi-Fi for indoor use (Wireless LAN) is being hampered by a number of restrictions due to the regulations laid down by the ANRT. In fact, in Morocco two connected buildings on a single site (such as a university or factory) are considered an outdoor connection and are treated as such, which means advance permission needs to be sought from the ANRT. Worse still, a business which wants to link up its network between several buildings on its site has to pay a monthly charge of between 1,000 to 10,000 dirhams.

As a result, Morocco is missing out on the opportunity to use wireless LANs as a real alternative to landline LANs and this is slowing down the process of closing the digital divide, reducing costs and increasing connection speeds… Restrictions on indoor wireless are also leading to instances of fraud as a number of companies are setting up Wi-Fi hotspots of their own without declaring this to the ANRT in order to avoid paying the charges.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/04/24/feature-02
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Morocco risk: Infrastructure risk.
(RiskWire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) COUNTRY BRIEFING FROM THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT

Infrastructure in Morocco is poor and a major cost to business. Although roads are generally adequate, congestion is becoming a concern and new roads are not being built as fast as needed. Ports, especially at Casablanca, are busy, but upgrading is under way, led by work on the Tangiers-Med deep-water port at Oued R'Mel on the Mediterranean coast near the Strait of Gibraltar, which will become the second-largest in Morocco after Casablanca. Airport service is barely adequate for commercial purposes, and the railways are well below western standards. Telecommunications infrastructure has been improving, and is generally adequate in major cities. Overall, however, telephone penetration rates are low and Internet and computer take-up is lagging. Power supply is also erratic. The government's infrastructural priority is housing. It argues that urban deprivation contributes to support for radical Islamic political groups, although bureaucratic inertia means that actual investment has been limited.

SCENARIOS
The road network impedes distribution between major cities (Moderate Risk): Although Morocco's road network is generally good, congestion is a growing concern in a number of places. The country has around 57,000 km of roads, of which about 32,000 km are surfaced. There are currently only 480 km of motorway (from Casablanca to Tangier and from Rabat to Fes), but the government plans to increase this to 1,400 km by 2010, with extensions from Casablanca to Agadir via Marrakesh (already under construction) and from Fes to Oujda on the Algerian border. Short links from Casablanca to El Jadida and from Tangiers to the new deep-water port of Tangiers-Med are also planned. Work is also under way, in sections, on La rocade mediterranee, a 550-km coastal highway linking Tangiers to the Algerian border, designed to break the isolation of the underdeveloped north. Morocco also has a programme under way to upgrade the rest of the road network by widening and surfacing. The rural road network is being extended by 1,500 km a year; currently only 50% of the rural population is served by roads that are usable all year round. Many roads, especially those passing through tourist areas, are dangerous, with frequent traffic accidents and fatalities. Be prepared for delays in the road-building programme, and for a slowdown in future construction and maintenance, because of ongoing budgetary pressures in the government.

Outdated ports and railways create delays in domestic and international trade (Moderate Risk): Both ports and railways are now being targeted for significant upgrades, with large sums due to be spent on railways, airports and the Tangiers-Med deep-water port during the next few years. A high-speed train service between Casablanca and Marrakesh is being built and should begin operations by 2010. Several major new roads are also under construction. However, as with all infrastructures, businesses should not expect rapid progress on development and expansion plans as long as fiscal pressures persist. Capital investment is the first item to be cut once fiscal pressures bite.

BACKGROUND (Updated: May 26th, 2006)

Natural Resources and the Environment
Morocco covers 458,730 sq km and Western Sahara a further 252,120 sq km. There are two mountain chains: the Rif in the north and the Atlas in the centre. To the north and west of the Atlas a coastal plain extends to the Atlantic. With its warm climate and fertile soils, this region is the most suitable for agriculture and the most densely populated. To the south and east of the Atlas, bordering the Sahara desert, the land is mostly arid. There are rich fishing grounds off the Atlantic coast, especially off Western Sahara. Agriculture depends on the annual rainy season, which lasts from November to March. The frequency of drought has increased, with below-average rainfall now occurring every other year on average, compared with once every five years during the 1980s.

Water supplies
Annual water availability is currently around 18bn cu metres, of which 2.1bn cu metres is designated for drinking water and industrial needs, with the remainder used for irrigation. Water storage capacity in dams is scheduled to be increased to 40bn cu metres by 2020 through an extensive dam-building programme, begun in the 1960s, that calls for the building of two dams a year. Demand for water is expanding by an estimated 6% annually, and prices are being raised in a bid to rationalise water use, particularly for agriculture. The authorities have introduced a programme to upgrade the irrigation system; a World Bank report has warned that the country will face a water shortage unless improved water-management techniques are introduced.

Pollution
Pollution, particularly from the phosphate industry, is a growing problem and the government is working to establish a regulatory framework that will curb the damage. Moroccos beaches and waterways are the hardest hit; a survey in 2000 found that 21% of beaches are polluted while 50% are of only medium quality. The effluent from coastal chemical complexes is largely to blame. The World Bank has recommended that a comprehensive environmental policy be drawn up, linked to water use, pollution and agricultural development. The volume of wastewater produced in urban areas is expected to more than double from 410m cu metres in 1990 to 900m cu metres in 2020. Increasingly, the management of water, wastewater and power systems is being contracted out to foreign companies. Environmental schemes are often funded by concessionary loans from sources such as the Japanese and German governments, the European Investment Bank and the African Development Bank (AfDB). The World Bank and Islamic Development Bank have also both recently extended loans to the government to address water sanitation problems.

Transport, Communications and the Internet
Funding for infrastructure development has traditionally been met through concessional loans and grants, but the Moroccan government is increasingly encouraging private participation. Favoured mechanisms for attracting private capital are build-operate-transfer terms or long-term operating concessions.

Roads
Morocco has around 57,000 km of roads, of which about 32,000 km are surfaced. There are currently only 530 km of motorway (from Casablanca north to Asilah and from Rabat east to Fes), but the government plans to increase this to 1,500 km by 2010. The motorways will be run as toll-road concessions. Work on motorways from Casablanca to Marrakesh (150 km), and Marrakesh to Agadir (240 km) is under way. The Marrakesh-Agadir road is expected to be operational by late 2009, at an estimated cost of Dh6.2bn(US$670m). Also under construction are shorter links from Casablanca to ElJadida, Asilah to Tangiers, Tangiers to Tetouan and Tangiers to the new deep-water port of Tangiers-Med. Contracts to build a 320-km motorway from Fes to Oujda on the Algerian border are to be awarded in late 2006. Work is also under way, in sections, on La rocade mediterranee, a 550-km coastal highway linking Tangiers to the Algerian border, designed to break the isolation of the underdeveloped north. Funding for road building has come primarily from loans from bilateral and multilateral donors. Morocco also has an ongoing programme to upgrade the rest of the road network by widening and surfacing. The rural road network is being extended by 1,500 km a year; currently only 50% of the rural population is served by roads that are usable all year round.

Railways
Rail passenger traffic has been growing modestly in recent years, but freight traffic (over 75% of it phosphates) has stagnated. Only half of the 1,907-km rail network is electrified and much-needed modernisation and extension has been painfully slow. In 2002 the government provided the state railway company, Office national des chemins de fer (ONCF), with Dh1.95bn to cover debts of Dh1.3bn and stabilise its finances, while ONCF agreed to invest Dh6.5bn to upgrade the system in 2002-05. Progress should be faster in 2005-09 as ONCF plans to invest Dh17bn to modernise 400 km of electrified line; build rail links from Tangiers to the Tangier-Med deep-water port and from Taourit to Nador; and construct a high-speed line between Casablanca and Agadir via Marrakesh. New rolling stock will include 18 double-decker trains, 20 locomotives and 300 carriages. ONCF is being transformed into a limited company and divided into two arms, one to manage the infrastructure and the other to run services. This could be a step towards privatising the company. The government has already liberalised rail tariffs, allowing ONCF to compete more aggressively with road transport. In 2003 Morocco and Spain reached an agreement to build a double-track railway tunnel under the Strait of Gibraltar, the first direct rail link between Europe and Africa. The two governments will spend 27m (US$34m) in 2004-06 on seismic and other geological studies to identify the best route. Construction is expected to start in 2008 and will cost some 3bn (US$3.7bn). Financial support will be sought from the EU.

Ports
Casablanca handles almost half of all shipping traffic; it is the leading container port and along with nearby Mohammedia handles most of the hydrocarbons trade, whereas most phosphate rock exports are shipped from Casablanca, Jorf Lasfar and Safi. The Office dexploitation des ports completed a US$220m expansion and modernisation programme in 2002. In 2003 work began on the Tangiers-Med deep-water port at Oued RMel on the Mediterranean coast near the Strait of Gibraltar. The Dh11bn port is due for completion in 2007 and will be the second biggest in Morocco after Casablanca. Concessions to equip and run container terminals at the port are being awarded and plans to develop the associated industrial and commercial free-trade zones are under way. The Tangiers-Med Special Agency (TMSA), the government body that manages the Tangiers-Med port, granted the concession licence to equip and run the first and second container terminals to two different international consortia in 2005. The winners agreed to commit a total investment of 270m by 2010 and 400m during the 30-year concession period. The port is seen as an industrial development hub for the Tangiers-Tetouan Special Development Zone and is expected to attract investment into the relatively undeveloped northern region of Morocco. The government is responsible for funding the basic port works, as well as for transport connections and utilities, with the rest to be funded by the private sector.

Air services
Morocco has 12 airports. The state airport authority, Office national des aeroports (ONDA), is planning to enlarge capacity to meet the forecast growth in passenger numbers to 27m in 2020. The work will cost some Dh3.3bn in 2005-08. The biggest single development is the Dh885m extension of Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca (which has 50% of all passenger traffic and 85% of freight) to double capacity to 8m passengers by 2008. Most of the funding for this work has come from the AfDB. Other airport terminals are being extended at Tangiers, Al Hoceima, Essaouira, Errachidia and Dakhla, and runways are being lengthened at Marrakesh (the second-busiest airport), Tangiers and Al Hoceima. A priority of ONDA is to support the governments goal to increase tourist numbers to 10m by 2010. Morocco has received a grant from the US to fund a study of the feasibility of privatising the countrys airports.

The national flag carrier, Royal Air Maroc (RAM), was in financial difficulties even before the September 2001 attacks on the US because of overstaffing, rising jet fuel costs, the strong US dollar and interest payments on loans to buy new aircraft. Business stagnated and insurance premiums rose following the 2001 attacks on the US, the US-led invasion of Iraq and the bombings in Casablanca in May 2003. As a result, the company introduced an efficiency programme to shed staff and non-core activities and returned to financial health in 2003/04 with a 65% rise in net profits to Dh250m (US$28m). RAM operates 900 flights a week with 33 aircraft serving 40 countries. The airline has a fleet renewal programme that involves buying 22-24 new aircraft in 2002-12; most are expected to be Boeings. RAM is also extending its interests in the hotel business. RAMs improving fortunes may lead the government to revive plans to dispose of up to 40% of the firm either by sale to a strategic investor or by flotation on the stockmarket.

The government is hoping that expanding aviation capacity and increasing competition in the airline industry will help develop the countrys tourism potential. The market in air transport was liberalised in February 2004, and most restrictions on foreign airlines flying to Morocco were lifted. In December 2005 Morocco took a big step towards further liberalisation of its air transport sector with the signing of an open skies deal with the EU, giving reciprocal access rights in these aviation markets, the first non-European country to do so. The government forecasts that by 2010 61% of the scheduled-flight market will be held by RAM, 38% by foreign carriers and 1% by private Moroccan operators. Of the charter market, 30% will be held by Atlas Blue, a new Marrakesh-based low-cost airline owned by RAM, 20% by private Moroccan operators and 50% by foreign charter airlines.

Telecommunications
The telecommunications sector is being opened to competition and is expanding rapidly with new services and new platforms, such as fixed satellite very small aperture terminal (VSAT) digital data transmission. The authorities hope that the sector will lift GDP growth and create jobs throughout the economy, including in Internet-based businesses and service firms. Growth potential is good: the penetration rate for mobile phones is still moderate (at 33 subscribers for every 100 people in 2005) and for fixed lines is low (4.5 for every 100 people); the middle class and business communities, though still small, are growing; and the regulatory regime is light but effective. The regulator, Agence nationale de regulation des telecommunications (ANRT), has overseen the liberalisation of the sector, and its independence from government has given confidence to foreign investors.

Liberalisation began with the sale of a 35% stake in the state telecoms firm, Maroc Telecom (MT), to Vivendi Universal (France) for Dh23.3bn in December2000. The government disposed of a further 30.9% of MT stock in November 2004: 16% (for Dh12.4bn) by direct sale to Vivendi (giving it a controlling stake of 51%) and 14.9% (for Dh9bn) by stockmarket flotation in Casablanca and Paris. The Moroccan state will hold its remaining 34.1% at least until 2007.

MT had a monopoly in the sector until 1999. Competition was introduced into the mobile-phone market that year with the sale for Dh10.8bn of a second mobile-phone concession to Meditelecom (Meditel), a joint venture led by Telefonica (Spain) and Portugal Telecom. Since then, the mobile-phone market has been stimulated by competition between MT and Meditel, which has driven down prices and increased the range of services. MT had around 6.7mmobile-phone subscribers at the end of 2005 and Meditel around 3.3m. Two licences to operate third-generation (3G) mobile-phone services (allowing high-speed data transfer) are expected to be awarded in 2006.

MTs fixed-line monopoly was broken in 2005, when licences were awarded to Meditel (to run a local loop, a long-distance service and an international service) and a local firm, Maroc Connect (to run a number of local loops). The fixed-line market contracted in 2000 and 2001 as customers moved over to mobile phones but is now expanding, driven by growing interest in the Internet, broadband, cable television and data services. The introduction of competition in the fixed sector will also encourage expansion. MT had 1.4m fixed-line customers at end-2005.

Internet
Morocco had only 300,000 Internet subscribers at end-2005, but the number of Internet users was estimated by the government at 3m at the start of that year (a figure much higher than the 800,000 estimated by the UN Conference on Trade and Development). Most connections occur in Internet cafes as most Moroccans cannot afford personal computers. In late 1999 ANRT introduced reforms that improved the speed of access in Morocco, providing more Internet bandwidth to potential service providers and the number of ISPs was in double figures by 2002. The entry of foreign competition, including the Internet services arm of France Telecom, Wanadoo, in early 2000, forced MT to cut its monthly subscription rates and abolish connection fees. MT launched an asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) service in October 2003. The high-capacity service is available in the 13 largest cities, and will allow users to access a wider range of web services more easily. There is currently no specific regulation of the Internet in Morocco, although the authorities have occasionally tried to block access temporarily to websites publishing material that it considers out of bounds. Even websites close to the Polisario Front (containing information that cannot be found in the national press) are accessible. However, under pressure from the conservative and Islamist parties, the government is planning to pass laws to block access to pornographic sites (the Moroccan penal code prohibits pornography).

Media
A range of newspapers and current affairs journals are printed in Arabic and French. Most are affiliated to political parties or support the official palace line, but in recent years a number of more outspoken newspapers have appeared. The pro-government dailies include Al Anbaa, Maroc Soir and Le Matin du Sahara. AlAlam and lOpinion back the Parti Istiqlal, while Al Bayane supports the Union socialiste des forces populaires (USFP). Among the new brand of lively, anti-establishment publications are a best-selling French-language paper, Le Nouveau Journal, its Arabic-language version, Assahifa, and two French-language weeklies, TelQuel and Demain (although the latter is currently banned). Two useful business publications are the daily LEconomiste and the weekly La Vie Economique.

Several well-established French and Arabic publications take a sharply critical line against the establishment and devote extensive coverage to past human rights abuses and corruption. Nevertheless, the authorities regularly use criminal prosecutions, censorship and harassment to control press coverage of three highly sensitive topics: the monarchy, Islam and Western Sahara. Under Moroccan law, an insult to the royal family, Islam or the territorial integrity of Morocco is punishable by a jail sentence of three to five years and a fineofDh10,000-100,000 (US$1,100-11,000). Anti-establishment publications occasionally try to push back the boundaries of what is considered acceptable. For example, in 2003, Ali Lmrabet served seven months in jail after one of the publications he edits, Demain, carried satirical cartoons and photo-montages that insulted the person of the king, and in 2005 he was fined Dh50,000 and banned from journalism for ten years after being sued over an article on Western Sahara. The editor of Al Ousbouaaya al-Jadida went on trial in mid-2005 after publishing an interview with a prominent Islamist, Nadia Yassine, that called for a republic. (The trial has been postponed.) Nevertheless, there are signs of a relaxation of the restrictions on the media, including the reporting on local television of human rights reports critical of the government, and the televising of public hearings of the Justice and Reconciliation Commission. The government has also announced that the law will be revised to abolish jail sentences for transgressions.

A 2003 law lifted the government monopoly over all radio and television transmissions. The state runs two television channels--TVM and 2M--and nine regional radio stations. In 2004 the cabinet approved a draft law to transform them into limited companies open to private investors, and to establish an independent body to regulate the sector and award licences. The national press agency, Maghreb Arab Press, will also be partly privatised.

Energy
Few proven reserves
Morocco imports over 90% of the energy it consumes; energy equivalent to 12m tonnes of oil was imported in 2004 at a cost of Dh26.1bn (US$2.9bn). The countrys own energy resources are limited to modest amounts of hydroelectric, wind and solar power; coal reserves that are close to depletion and negligible proven reserves of oil and gas; firewood is widely used in rural areas. A reported oil strike in the Haut Plateau region of the north-east in early 2000 raised hopes that Morocco might be able to meet its own oil needs, or even become an oil exporter, but subsequent tests on the discovery have proved disappointing. There remains the possibility, however, that oil and gas remain to be discovered onshore or offshore.

Electricity generation will shift to the private sector
Electricity supply grew by 7% to 18bn kwh in 2004 and demand by 8% to 15.7bnkwh. Over 80% of supply is generated thermally from imported coal and oil; around 4.8m tonnes of coal and 574,000 tonnes of fuel oil were used for this purpose in 2004. Some 5-9% of electricity is generated by hydroelectric power stations; the amount varies according to rainfall and reached 1.6bn kwh (8.9% of total supply) in 2004. A further 1% comes from wind power (200mkwh in 2004), although this is set to increase. Solar energy is being used in some villages where a connection to the national power grid is not economically feasible. The balance of electricity supply is imported from Spain; imports reached 1.5bn kwh in 2004.

With demand rising, the government has turned to the private sector to provide the necessary extra supply. The states share of electricity supply has fallen to around 35% as private power stations have come on stream and the sector has been linked to foreign grids. The first private power plant was Jorf Lasfar; a US-Swiss consortium took over two existing 330-mw units in 1997 and had added two 348-mw units by 2001. In 2005 a 284m (US$352m) 387-mw combined-cycle plant using gas from the Euro-Maghreb pipeline that runs from Algeria to Spain was brought on stream at Tahaddart near Asilah by a consortium comprising Siemens of Germany (20%), Endesa of Spain (32%) and Moroccos state-owned Office national de lelectricite (ONE; 48%). Moroccos total installed capacity at end-2005 was 4,848 mw, compared with 4,621 mw in 2004. ONE also has a 463-mw pumped-storage (energy transfer) plant at Afourer in central Morocco, inaugurated in 2005.

Supply capacity is set to rise further. The link to Spain, opened in 1998, is being doubled to 1,400 mw by end-2006. An 800-mw plant is planned at Al Wahda in the north, using Algerian gas, and several small plants are under construction to serve the phosphoric acid and oil-refining industries. The government is building a 140-mw wind farm costing 160m in the Tangiers region with European funding. Several solar-power schemes are under way; ONE plans to provide 227,000 rural homes in 4,500 remote villages with solar power by end-2006. Nuclear power is also on the medium- to long-term agenda.

ONE invested Dh4.2bn in the electricity infrastructure in 2004 and Dh4.8bn in 2005, and has a Dh39bn investment programme for 2006-12. The rural electrification programme, launched in co-operation with local councils and residents (who pay part of the connection cost), has made great progress. In 2005 another 220,000 households were connected, lifting the proportion of connected rural households to 81%.

Electricity distribution remains in the hands of ONE. Prices, still high by regional standards, are slowly falling. In late 2005 ONE submitted plans to re-organise the market into two segments, one regulated according to ONEs tariff, the other allowing commercial customers to buy their electricity directly from private or overseas suppliers, which should bring prices down further.

Euro-Maghreb gas pipeline
Morocco currently produces a mere 50m cu metres/year of natural gas and hopes of significant gas strikes remain unfulfilled. Morocco also has access to 600mcu metres/y of Algerian natural gas in lieu of transit fees from the Euro-Maghreb gas pipeline. Morocco plans to increase consumption of natural gas to over 5bn cu metres/y by 2020, equivalent to 25% of the countrys energy needs. Morocco could increase its imports of Algerian gas but is unlikely to want to become over-dependent upon this source because of its fraught political relationship with its eastern neighbour. Instead, Morocco plans to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) through a network of LNG terminals, built and run by local and international private investors. Each terminal would cost over US$500m and Morocco would need several of them to meet the 2020target.
Copyright 2007 Economist Intelligence Unit
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Morocco's turning tide.
Jason Burke Sunday April 22, 2007 The Observer

A magnet for European tourists, with a new young king intent on reform, Morocco seemed set for a bright future. But modernisation, the rise of Islamism and a wave of al-Qaeda-linked bombings have left the country at a crossroads.

An empty square in front of the ferry docks in the northern Moroccan port city of Tangiers. It's after midnight on a fresh spring night and scruffy teenagers fight and shout under a palm tree. The narrow lanes leading up to the old town - the medina - with its shops, winding passageways and windowless walls, are silent but for the footsteps of the occasional shift-worker hurrying home. A dog barks, the waves slap on the dockside and beyond the gravel of the long beach a ship's horn sounds dully in the darkness. To the north, across the nine mile-wide Straits of Gibraltar, is Europe. A sign in Arabic and French points the way to the docks serving Italy, France and Spain. To the east, beyond the curve of the bay and the rows of half-constructed apartment and office blocks, and the new railway station, lies the southern coast of the Mediterranean, sliding away towards the heart of the Arab and Muslim world. And to the west is the headland where you can stand facing the heavy breakers of the Atlantic and imagine the entire continent of Africa at your back. Morocco has always been at a crossroads. And never more than now.

The first sight of Morocco for tourists arriving from the UK is not of Tangiers but of Marrakesh in the south. An estimated 150,000 British holidaymakers (and 800,000 French) travelled to the desert city last year. For most Britons, Marrakesh - and Morocco - is one of three things: either the latest fashionable celebrity destination, somewhere to go clubbing and stay relatively cheaply in a magnificently restored 16th-century palace; or it's a mystical oriental paradise, a land of camels, water-pipes, rugs and hashish; or it is Arab, Muslim and poor, and therefore on the point of turning into a factory for illegal immigrants and suicide bombers. In fact, Morocco is all of these things and none.

Near a school in a good area of Marrakesh, teenagers flirt, gossip and talk on mobile phones. Hassan, one of the leather-jacketed adolescents doing wheelies on scooters, tells me the new king, Mohammed VI, is 'cool' and that the future of the country is 'brilliant'. Watching from across the street is Turia, a 17-year-old maths student, who does not think Morocco is heading in the right direction at all.

'I like things calm and it's too noisy here now,' she says. 'There is too much immorality. Things change too quickly.' She is wearing a headscarf, 'because it suits [her]', because it is her 'religion' and because her mother wears one too. Turia tells me that her father is dead and that life is difficult. A friend, also veiled, joins her. She is with a young, poorly-dressed man. They have been holding hands during a walk in the nearby park. 'There are a lot of problems for young people now,' he tells me. 'Relationships, work, accommodation.' 'Things are changing too much here,' says Turia again.

Change is now the theme in Morocco. The first thing you see at Marrakesh airport is a sign apologising for inconvenience caused by building work. It could apply to half the country. The airport is just one of hundreds of massive developments which, for good or ill, are changing the face of the nation. Around Marrakesh are new stations, huge new villa complexes, a giant cinema, Africa's biggest nightclub, and even, an hour's drive through the desert towards the sea, an entire town built with mosques, nurseries and communal kitchens.

That change is needed - Morocco sits below Ghana and Namibia in the UN's human poverty index. The new era is symbolised by the new 43-year-old king. Though something of a playboy - critics call him His Majetski because of a taste for water sports - Mohammed VI wants to modernise his country after years of repressive dictatorship under his father. 'Modernity with tradition,' says another giant advertising hoarding in front of one new residential development. Like the signs at the airport, it applies to more than just a single site. The construction is just the most visible part of a huge project aiming at changing the values and perspectives of the nation.

Turia is not alone in worrying that the changes are taking Morocco in the wrong direction. On the site of one slum clearance, local residents are demonstrating against 'the venal advisers' of the king who, they say, 'have kicked them out of their homes'. The fruits of Marrakesh's property boom are not equitably distributed. There is also a strong security establishment which has little interest in Morocco becoming a happy, prosperous democracy. Within minutes of my stopping to interview the demonstrators, a secret policeman has appeared and wants to know who I am, what I am doing and where I am staying.

'You see,' says Turia. What I see is a country with a long and complex history - a monarchy stretching back centuries, decades as a colony, the scars of Cold War geo-politics - groping its way through the conflicting ideologies and identities of the 21st century. Europe is close, but a long way away too.

I take the train to Casablanca, the central coastal city and the economic heartland of the country. Morocco was a de facto colony for 44 years and one of the legacies - along with the French language spoken by the elite, the lycees, good coffee and croissants, and passable wine - are the trains, crowded perhaps but, at least in second class where I am travelling, cheap. The very poor take the bus - my fellow travellers are businessmen, students, junior bureaucrats, families. Marrakesh is considered the south of Morocco but it is less than halfway down the spine of the country. Vast tracts of the Sahara extend to the south and, once over the Atlas mountains, to the east.

Half of Morocco's 33 million citizens live in the cities, mostly along the coastal strip, and many, particularly in rural areas, are desperately poor. According to the UN, illiteracy rates are around 50 per cent and a quarter of the country is without sanitation. We pass donkey carts, shepherds and mangy flocks, dirt roads strewn with rubbish. The approach to Casablanca is marked by building sites.

The city streets are bustling with smartly dressed office workers, the women wearing matching suits and headscarves. A year ago I was struck by the economic activity here. A new view of Morocco is now common in business circles in Europe and American: a country now open for business, where European firms install big, cheap factories; a country of investment opportunities, of growth, of money being made. Annual growth rates of up to 7 per cent, massive investment in the country's infrastructure, a rush of European firms, all support such a vision of the country. But as with the other images of Morocco, it is both true and unrepresentative.

I find Nourredine Ayouch, a public relations expert who is president of three NGOs (working on political, cultural and development projects) in his vast office on the Boulevard d'Anfa. Charming and voluble, he launches straight into a critique of the king. That he can do so is evidence of how things have changed. To say that the king has too much power would have been extremely dangerous a decade ago. But reforms have not gone far enough, he complains. 'This is a monarchy that is heading towards democracy,' he tells me, but there is a long way to go. 'The ruler is not answerable for what he does.'

This autumn there will be new elections which, if they follow those of five years ago, will be largely free and fair, executive power is still very much in the hands of the monarch. 'We are nothing like other countries in the Middle East,' stresses Ayouch. 'The king viscerally wants modernity for his country. But no one is going to give us democracy on a plate.'

What is clear is that for Ayouch - and the king - modernity and democracy are inextricably linked. Their model is not the US, despite a historic pro-American stance, but Europe. The way forward lies just across the Straits of Gibraltar.

Art critic Kinza Sefrioui has reversed the journey so many of her compatriots hope to make. A fine French education led her back to Casablanca three years ago. Now she writes for one of the few independent news magazines. We meet in a bar in the busy commercial centre of Casablanca, a few hundred yards from the gates of the old city. After years spent in other 'Islamic' countries, I am unused to openly ordering a beer. We talk about both the energy and diversity of the cultural scene in Morocco and the difficulties for writers and artists. Little of the boom money is finding its way into culture, though the king, a fan of visual arts, has ordered the construction of a number of galleries and artistic centres. There is, however, a big music scene - fusions of local and Western music, rap, 'metal' - and festivals where 'you can go with your boyfriend or girlfriend and no one will want to see your marriage certificate'. 'It's not a case of being Westernised,' Kinza says, 'it's just about partying.' We speak about Marock , last year's controversial film portraying the lives of the spoiled children of Casablanca's elite: sex, drugs, alcohol, fast cars and the nightclubs like those along the famous seaside strip, the Corniche. 'The criticism did not focus on whether the film was any good or not,' says Kinza, 'but on the bad image of the country.' For many overseas, the open hedonism of a tiny proportion of the urban population is taken as a sign of the new Morocco, yet another image, partially true, partially deceptive.

Certainly the huge gulf between the richest and poorest in Morocco remains stark. I visit a home for destitute street kids, and then a shanty town where entire families subsist on pounds 1 a day. I meet 38-year-old Fatima, who sells hard-boiled eggs on the beach for a living, and lives in a single room with two teenage daughters in an old mental hospital, home to scores of families. Later I stop by the opening of a private exhibition in a wealthy suburb with champagne and canapes. The owner says that business has never been better. Tonight he has sold several large abstracts for between pounds 4,000 and pounds 7,000. His partner gives me a lift back into town in her brand new Land Rover. Her car barely turns heads these days, such is the wealth flowing into Casablanca, she tells me. But there are problems, she says, as we drive past an enormous new Zara store. 'The Moroccans have changed... Islamism is rising and that breaks my heart,' she says. 'Before, no one was interested in whether you were Muslim, Christian or Jewish. It was very tolerant, very moderate. Now the Moroccans are becoming very... Moroccan. They always had an inferiority complex towards the Arabs of the Middle East. Now they want to show they are more Arab than anyone else. And more Muslim. But it's sad. Maybe they need an identity or something, I don't know.'

Abdelwahed Motawakil knows. Or at least he thinks he does. Motawakil, 52, is secretary general of The Union of Faith and Social Charity, an Islamic group that, though the government and observers distinguish between it and the militants who were responsible for suicide attacks in Casablanca in 2003 that killed 50, is not officially recognised as a political party and is seen by many as 'potentially very dangerous'. A more moderate Islamic party has already made a serious impact on the street and in parliament, and is set for big gains in the elections this autumn.

'People turn to us and to Islam because we want a free political order where people are free to choose their leaders and a have a decent life, and because we fight for the fundamental right of a man to know his creator. We want a just system and spirituality. And the two cannot be separated,' he tells me. I list the recent reforms - the new law bolstering the rights of women, a form of peace and reconciliation process dealing with human rights abuses by the state, the king's well-thought-of human development initiatives, praised by Bayti and other NGOs in Casablanca. Motowakil dismisses them all. 'Are there any benefits for the Moroccan people?' he asks. 'Just for a small minority. We have a despotic, autocratic rule. The reforms are a game played by the monarchy to distract people's attention.'

Motawakil is the very picture of the modern Islamist politician. His language is reasonable and his message appeals to large numbers of ordinary Moroccans who are fed up with corrupt and incompetent local administrators. He insists that, if in power, his party would respect the will of the people. 'We are against violence. We do not believe that you can impose any solution by force. Democracy is the only practical possibility,' he says, nodding sincerely. 'This country has been Islamic for many centuries,' he says when I raise the 'resurgence of Islamism' that many analysts talk about. 'There is no identity problem.' But when asked who he thinks is responsible for the 9/11 attacks, he is too canny a politician to openly put forward the anti-semitic conspiracy theory that the attacks were the work of the Israeli secret services and the CIA, but he comes close. 'I don't believe that a man like bin Laden up in the mountains could do it, so it must have been someone else... there are powerful people who would benefit from something like that... There are international interests,' he says. Outside, the taxi driver who deposited me outside Motowakil's office an hour before has returned to tell me that he has since been questioned by the secret police about who I am.

The spooks will not be too stretched if tempted to check on my next meeting - with the minister for youth, whose office, in the aseptic diplomatic quarter of the capital of Rabat, is directly opposite the headquarters of the national gendarmerie. I take a collective taxi - one of the old Mercedes that routinely carry eight passengers wedged across the passenger seats in a happy chaos of bags, flowing djellaba robes, plastic bags and pots - for a few dirhams. As we pass the massive site where a new marina is being built below the huge walls of the ancient city, perched on a crag above the rolling Atlantic, the young driver sneers at the expense of the project, and is told off by one of his older clients.

I am expecting self-promoting, diplomatic flannel from the minister, but instead get nearly two hours of acute analysis. Mohammed Al-Ghass is 43, the same age as the king, and is a believer in building a new Morocco, a prosperous, stable, democratic, open and tolerant nation that will act as an example for other states in Africa and the Middle East. He says clearly that Morocco has embarked on a massive project of social, economic and political engineering: reducing the monarchy to something resembling that of the UK or Holland, pump-priming the economy to stimulate equitable growth. This is all very ambitious, difficult and risky, he says. 'We are in the middle of trying something that lots of people have said is impossible. It is absolutely essential that we make it work... I don't even want to imagine the consequences if we fail.'

We talk about the threat from the Islamists. Motawakil and men like him have no intention of allowing elections once in power, asserts Ghass. To fight back, he says, 'democracy must be strong and certain of its own values, principles and its superiority. Democracy must be able to convince people; but in a society such as this one the risks, the dangers are greater than elsewhere.' And the Islamists have some advantages. 'Inculcating democratic values takes time,' Ghass argues, 'and the Islamists surf on the poverty, the intense frustration in our society or [that] felt against the West. There is a love-hate thing happening, a sort of fascination and rejection. The West is so close to us here and we see how they live well and are happy and have what we want, and we would love to be part of these open, content societies. But they don't want us, so we find a way to say that we are rejecting them, not vice versa.'

Can, though, Morocco become the prosperous democracy he is talking about? Ghass points out that 40 years ago everyone said that Spain was doomed to dictatorship and poverty. 'We simply cannot fail,' he says.

In Akshour Farda, a cluster of mud-walled houses, orchards and snotty children that clings to the steep slopes of the Oued Farda valley, many hundreds of miles to the north of Casablanca and Rabat, this spring is different. Now there is television. Mohammed, a 44-year-old farmer, proudly shows me the wooden cabinet he has built for his own set, which now dominates the small room where he sleeps with his wife, father and four children. What does he watch? Spanish television for the most part - and mainly football. His village, still without a water supply other than a natural well, has no sanitation, and is now divided between Real Madrid and Barcelona fans.

Mohammed pulls out a pipe and packs it with hash. He lives in the centre of the Rif mountains, the world's biggest hash-producing area, the vast proportion of which is sold in Europe. The electricity is part of a government programme and, like the new olive plantations, is aimed not only at developing the area but at convincing the local farmers that they should stop growing cannabis. Though the new push to restrict cultivation is having some effect, there is work to be done - last year 120,000 hectares were sown with cannabis in and around the Rif. The farmers themselves do not earn much - a gram of hash costs about as much as a text message. 'What do you expect?' said one local teacher. 'The people here are poor. They have been ignored for years. It's a good crop and there's a ready market.' Along with major smuggling and people trafficking, hash is one of the less official links between Morocco and mainland Europe.

Up in the Rif, the children shout 'Ola!' when they see a foreigner.
Between the Rif and the coast is the city of Tetouan. For years it has had a bad reputation - as a city of smugglers, criminals and lately as a hotbed for radical Islamism. The American government has leaked a series of investigations into the origins of suicide bombers who have blown themselves up in Iraq and a clutch appear to have come from the city. I am not the first journalist to investigate this. When I hail a taxi to Jemaa Mazuuk, the area from where the bombers are meant to have come, Mowsef, the 22-year-old driver, laughs at my 'al-Qaeda tourism'. But we drive off happily enough, along a long boulevard bathed in evening sunlight and with a magnificent view out onto the foothills of the Rif. There is a rowdy demonstration under way - of support for the local football side that has just beaten Casablanca. Mowsef is a trainee mechanic and earning pounds 200 a month as a driver and is very happy, because he is saving up to go to France and marry his French-Moroccan girlfriend.

Mowsef takes me to an old schoolmate's house. There is no one in, because the friend, linked to the bomb attacks in Madrid in 2004 which killed 200 people, blew himself up when the Spanish police closed in on him afterwards. 'He was a nice bloke,' says Mowsef. 'He told his mum he was going to Spain for work, went for a year or so and then, boom!'

Back in the centre of town it is an animated Sunday evening. The streets are full of promenading couples. The markets are full of bustle. Older men in djellabas, younger men in leather jackets, some women in veils, some not. Old Mercedes taxis work their way through the throng under the Thirties Spanish-built buildings, with their mix of art deco white and green lines, local arches and Spanish shutters. It is nine o'clock and the street lights have flickered on in the main square, dominated by the huge timber doors to the royal palace. In the cafes around the square men play dominos and watch football and the news (there has been a suicide bombing in Casablanca) as they drink tea. There is a queue outside the cinema for a variety of Western films. The internet cafes are full of teenagers. Hawkers sell beans and snails. The streets begin to empty. It is late and there is a mountain chill in the air.

I drive down to Tangier, to an empty square in front of the ferry docks. There are scruffy teenagers, the medina, the waves slapping on the dockside, a ship's horn sounding dully in the darkness, and the multiple signposts, of which some point the way to Europe.
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