Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
August 4, 2007

Morocco launches first arts and crafts medina in Saïdia.
By Hassan Benmahdi 30/07/2007

Saïdia, a beautiful Mediterranean town in the northeast of Morocco, will be home to the first crafts medina, an area reserved exclusively for trade in local handcrafts. The project is expected to be completed in June 2008. Tourism Minister Adil Douiri authorised the first contract Wednesday (July 25th) for the construction of a Moroccan arts and crafts medina in the coastal resort of Saïdia, in accordance with the "Vision 2015" arts and crafts initiative. Spanish conglomerate Fadesa, the resort's developer, has promised to integrate this first medina into the heart of the coastal village.

The medina offers retail spaces ranging from 20 to 25 square metres. Store owners will receive a 50% reduction on rent within the resort of Saïdia. The new market will offer other types of space, including workshops offering an introduction to craft activities, shops concentrating on the sale of local produce and culinary art and presentation areas. Douiri indicated that the Saïdia medina will soon be followed by similar areas in the coastal resorts of Laguna Smir (Tamuda Bay) and Plage Blanche in Guelmim, in the south of Morocco.

Douiri added that the launch of the Saïdia medina fits perfectly with the Vision 2015 priorities which call for an overhaul of the arts and crafts sector, with Article 16 proposing the creation of private markets where there is a large flow of clients, particularly tourists.

According to the Minister the project will also provide the opportunity to make Morocco a special tourist destination, highlighting the country's national arts and crafts – one of its real assets in attracting tourists. "To promote the arts and crafts sector, the government is increasing opportunities for direct sales to benefit artists and craftsmen, whose main clientele consists of tourists," he explained.

Fadesa officials said the coastal resort of Saïdia is setting aside an area of 1,715 square metres for the medina which will be divided into four buildings. "We have introduced incentives, setting preferential rental rates for artists and craftsmen at 110 dirhams per month, and by removing the 6% commission on annual sales," one official said.
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24 killed, over a thousand injured in road accidents last week in Morocco.
Rabat, July 27

Twenty four people were killed and 1,194 were injured, including 42 seriously, in 927 road accidents that occurred in urban areas in the period July 16-22, reported the National Police (DGSN) in a press release. The document said these accidents are blamed mainly on the non-control over vehicles, heedlessness of pedestrians and drivers, speeding, non-respect of road rules, and driving under influence.

The source added that a total of 8,571 fines were paid, amounting to a sum of about USD 234,500.
Moroccan roads are considered among the deadliest in the world. Over the past decade, road accidents in the North African country have increased by 3% yearly, causing enormous economic losses, particularly in the field of tourism. They cost the State about USD 1.2 billion a year, that is 2.5% of the GDP.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box5/24_killed_over_a_th/view
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Moroccan group voices women's demands in upcoming elections.
By Imane Belhaj  01/08/2007

In the lead-up to Morocco's September elections, a new project has begun to educate and organise women to press forward with their agendas. The Social Movement for Equality and Citizenship's "Responsible Citizen Project" reiterates the common demands put forth by women, to compel voters to action.

The Social Movement for Equality and Citizenship, a movement established by the Democratic League for Women's Rights in Morocco, has put forth a new project in which it calls on Moroccan women to vote responsibly during the coming legislative elections and to defend their demands. The movement named the project, which receives support from the Fund for Supporting Equality between the Sexes, the "Responsible Citizen Project".

During a press conference held Friday (July 27th) in Casablanca, League President Fouzia Assouli said the project arose out of women's critical need to elevate their situation, especially illiterate or rural women who still lack many rights and necessities, circumstances which further degrade their social and economic position.

The project —which was presented to components of civil society, unions and political parties in the hopes that it would be incorporated into those groups' electoral programmes for the September 7th elections —voices a number of basic economic, social and legal demands that would benefit women.

The legal demands call for adherence to international standards protecting women from discrimination, exclusion and violence; putting in place the Social Solidarity Fund stipulated under the new family law to benefit women divorcees and their children, the enforcement of alimony rulings; and the adoption of stricter laws to combat violence against women.

The project's social and economic demands call for reducing unemployment among women by preparing them to enter the labour market; offering low-interest loans and marketing assistance to women contractors in order to increase the successfulness of their projects; combating poverty and marginalisation among women; incorporating traditionally female professions into the labour law; establishing day care programmes for the children of working women; and creating a fund to support women's co-operatives.

The project also calls for mandatory education for girls, the levying of fines against those who prevent girls from attending school, universal reproductive health services to prevent sexually transmitted diseases and death during childbirth and resources to fight illiteracy.

Assouli said the Responsible Citizen Project is expanding its reach into more remote regions of Morocco by way of the Democratic League for Women's Rights' annual convoys and through its experience at the League's centres for combating illiteracy as well as centres for counselling, legal guidance and psychological support located in a dozen regions of Morocco.

"It is no longer acceptable in our modern Morocco for us to see the backwardness and problems that Moroccan women still experience," Assouli told Magharebia. "For the poverty rate among women is at 19.2%, and more than 52% of the urban poor are women as are 50% of the rural poor. The illiteracy rate among women in remote rural areas exceeds 90%. Additionally, there is the absence of protection against economic, social, psychological and physical violence. Thus, the league decided to urge women to join together in defending their legitimate demands. I consider the coming elections pivotal in pressing for these demands, which empower [women] to surmount difficult conditions and assume an active part in human development and democracy building."

The Social Movement for Equality and Citizenship is organising meetings and convoys in cities and rural areas to inform the public about their programme. The group is also preparing to distribute audiotapes in 14 regions, containing the text of its demands in all Arabic and Amazigh dialects. http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/08/01/feature-01
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Climate change worries for bird: A rare mountain bird is to be radio tracked following concerns that its numbers are declining because of climate change.

Ring ouzels could be struggling because warmer weather is drying out soil making it harder for them to catch earthworms, according to RSPB Scotland. Fledglings in the Cairngorms National Park are to be monitored in a project backed by other organisations. Also known as mountain blackbirds, they winter in Spain and Morocco.

Innes Sim, RSPB research biologist and the project leader, said the decline was not thought to be linked to poor breeding.  He said: "We think that the main problems may occur after the breeding season once all the chicks fledge. "Very little is known about what the birds do in this period and before they migrate to south-east Spain and Morocco where they spend the winter."  Tracking the latest batch of Cairngorms birds represents the second of a three-year effort to monitor them.

This year the project will focus on nests in Braemar and is co-funded by Scottish Natural Heritage and supported by the Cairngorms National Park Authority. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6927415.stm
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Moroccan cereal production declines.
03/08/2007

Morocco's cereal production declined from 90 million quintals in 2005/2006 to 20 million quintals in the 2006/2007 agricultural season, a fall of 78%, MAP quoted a government press release as saying on Thursday (August 2nd). The decline is attributed the prolonged drought, which affected most significantly the output of soft wheat, decreased by 80% through July, compared to the same period in 2006. To curb the situation the Ministry of Agriculture announced it will import 3 million quintals to meet demand from October 2007 to March 2008, and has already suspended the collection of customs duties and taxes on cereals imports. The suspension aims at protecting consumers against rising international prices, the press release said. (MAP) http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2007/08/03/newsbrief-05
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Morocco's half year investments reach 7.7 bln USD. 
August 02, 2007

The Moroccan Investments Commission Wednesday approved a total of 16 new investment projects with a total value of 5.29 billion dirhams (about 645.2 million U.S. dollars), which could potentially create 3,320 new jobs. Between January 2007 and August 2007, the commission has approved a total of 57 investment projects valued at 64.05 billion dirhams (about 7.71 billion U.S. dollars) and with the potential of creating 36,346 new employment opportunities.

"During the first seven months of 2007, we have managed to equal the amount of investments that was registered in 2006," Moroccan commerce and industry minister Salah Eddine Mezouar said while speaking to the press at the end of a meeting called by the Investments Commission. "Now, our aim is to double the amount of investments, which were recorded in 2006," Mezouar said. (1 U.S. dollar = 8.2 dirhams)
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90782/index.html
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Franchising in Morocco: Aspects and topics of franchising development.

Franchising in Morocco was born in the '60ies, when brands such Avis, Hertz and Europcar opened their first outlets in the country. All of them are specialized in car rental as we could expect by a country considered as an ideal tourist destination.

During the last three years franchising has been showing a huge growth, reaching the rate of 185%. 308 brands work in Morocco, with about 1884 companies; only the 13% of them is represented by local enterprises while the majority is formed by foreign companies, coming especially from France.
The most driving category is represented by the Fashion, whose belongs the 26% of brands working in the country, followed by information technologies services. Most franchising chains are located in Casablanca and Rabat, considered as the cities showing the highest economic increase rate.
Since 2002 franchising in Morocco has been trusting in the Fédération Marocaine de la Franchise, the Moroccan franchising federation, created to improve franchising and to provide all the information required to start a business on one's own by this formula. The Maroc Franchise is held every year in Casablanca; the exhibition is organized by the Franchising federation to help promoting and developing franchising and commerce. The three days exhibition is considered as an ideal platform to approach all the opportunities offered by the Moroccan market
http://www.infofranchise.com/detail.cfm?IdNotizia=9798&IdSezione=2&strKey=com
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Moorish Mystique: Moroccan pieces made custom
Laura Thomas Wednesday, August 1, 2007

When you want to furnish your living room in Morocco, you don't head for a furniture store but to the shop of the local craftsman who will come and measure the space for the low flat sofas to line your walls. Everything of that sort is still made by hand there, says Hicham Tazi, who opened his custom design studio and retail store in San Francisco's Hayes Valley neighborhood about three years ago.

And if you want something custom made from Morocco, where so many wealthy Europeans are flocking to absorb its romance and Moorish mystique, you just have to see Tazi. "We are very much a custom shop. We do not do large production," he said.

That doesn't mean you can't walk in the door at Tazi Designs on Linden Lane and pick something off the floor. You can. Tazi stocks metal lamps (Akwas lamp shown above right, $150), Mediterranean-style iron garden chairs ($180), pillows, ceramics (shown at top, $15 to $18 each), antique or unusual rugs ($300 to $3,000), iron work screens, end tables ($200 to $600), chairs and benches with mosaic, metal and wood designs or in that knobby Syrian-style wood pattern.

And the occasional antique. He has a bedouin painted wood wedding trunk for $500.
If you want custom floor tiles, a mosaic table that looks like it belongs in a Provencal garden or a sofa that fits just right in your small apartment, Tazi can handle it.

He adapts Moroccan handiwork to just about any home decor and admires the work of European designers now flooding Morocco, building homes and modernizing Moroccan designs for clothes and furniture.

A former telecommunications executive, Tazi found he had to nurture his more creative side and he began to miss Morocco after 10 years in the United States. "So, I decided to bring Morocco here," he said.

Tazi Designs, 333 Linden St. (at Octavia), San Francisco. (415) 503-0013. Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday to Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/01/HO3HRA7TM2.DTL
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Casablanca's Ulema Council reaches out to citizens.
03/08/2007   By Mawassi Lahcen

The Ulema Council in Casablanca has begun undertaking innovative means of reaching out to Moroccans in a large, modernising city. The Ulema Council of Casablanca has established a listening centre to benefit women and youth in times of need, relying on the expertise of social science professionals. This is the first time a religious institution in Morocco has employed someone with qualifications outside the scope of the Sharia (Islamic law) sciences.

Ulema Council member Dr. Mohamed Mouchane said the centre's creation is part of the Ulema's expansion into the field of social work, increasing openness to citizens and adapting to keep pace with modern life.

Since its reform following the terrorist bombings of May 2003, the Higher Council of Ulema in Morocco has aspired to monopolise the issuing of fatwas and the structuring of Moroccans' religious life. Local Ulema Councils such as the one in Casablanca are charged with structuring and organising religious affairs at the local level and disseminating the policy of the Higher Council of Ulema, in order to maintain Moroccans' spiritual security and safeguard the country's religious constants in the face of extremism and foreign pressure.

The local councils became a necessary bridge to assume religious functions, such as leading prayer (by imams) and preaching in mosques. These activities now require applicants to pass an exam supervised by the Ulema Council and to obtain a tazkiya (pronouncement of integrity or credibility) from the council. The Ulema Council also conducts training courses for imams, preachers and muezzin (callers to prayer). It issued a guide for preachers which contains directives urging them to spread the spirit of moderation, to eschew rigidity and inflexibility, and to encourage citizens to unite in building a healthier society.

The Ulema Council of Casablanca is considered the nation's most active and creative, given the city's special character – it is Morocco's largest urban area and economic capital, and it was a target of terrorism in May 2003 and March and April 2007.

Mouchane added, "Covering Casablanca requires a great deal of activity from us, given the expanse of its area. We thus try to modernise and create new means of viewing our tasks." To meet these challenges, the Council has established permanent cells specialising in the affairs of women, youth, children and social work.

The Ulema Council of Casablanca recently concluded its third annual cultural week, held each year at the end of July. This year's activities expanded to encompass all districts in the greater Casablanca wilaya.

This year's theme for the event, which ran from July 21st through July 28th, was "For Tolerant and Open Islamic Discourse". The theme used the involvement of neighbourhood associations, cultural associations and local development associations to give a boost to its Interactive Cultural Week.

The cultural event featured ten conferences located throughout greater Casablanca on topics such as "Tolerance and Openness in Light of Islamic Guidance", "Islam and the Middle Way", "Islam: Religion of Compassion", "Islam and Dialogue", "Islam and Interconnection", "Islam and Moderation", and "Islam and Confronting Excess".

The Ulema Council also provided three tents for direct interaction in the districts of Anfa, Hay Hassani and Ain Chock. The tents offered direct dialogue and interaction with the Ulema, displays of the Ulema Council's publications, and a separate area for religious legal consultation and guidance. Throughout the Cultural Week, religious scholars rotated through each of the three tents, including one woman in the morning and three women in the evening. http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/08/03/feature-02
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