FOM Newsletter August 2002
Morocco Week in Review August 31 2002 

Bush administration to proceed on free trade agreement with Morocco, other countries
The Imilchil Marriage Moussem Kicks Off August 30
Moroccan economy poised to score steady growth in 2002, minister Morocco,
Morocco cuts 2002 inflation forecast to 2.0 pct
Morocco sees 2002 budget deficit up to 2.9 pct
Number of tourists visiting morocco drop by 13.7% in first half of 2002
King Mohammed dedicates regional investment center of Casablanca region
Morocco to honor Scorsese
More than 38,000 Moroccans Live in Andalusia
King Mohammed chairs ministers' council, focus on Arabic language

Bush administration to proceed on free trade agreement with Morocco, other countries

The Bush Administration has voiced its intent to move forward on specific trade agreements with a number of countries including Morocco. US trade representative Robert Zoellick sent on Friday letters to congressional leaders asking the Congress to help facilitate trade negotiations between the US and a number of countries, as a signal of the Bush Administration's "intent to move forward on specific trade agreements," according to a press release issued by the USTR.  Zoellick urged the Congress to act quickly to form the Congressional Oversight Groups required by the Trade Act of 2002. The decision to conclude a Free Trade Accord between Morocco and the US was officially announced by President Bush last April after the talks he held with King Mohammed VI who was then on a work visit to Washington. The accord is backed by several congressmen, and at their head the speaker of the House of Representatives, Dennis Hastert.  President Bush had said lately on the morrow of the Congress approval of the Trade Promotion Authority, authorizing the US president to negotiate trade agreements with other nations, he was expecting to see the free trade accord with Morocco signed the soonest. With TPA, "we will initiate new negotiations for Free Trade Agreements with other nations such as Morocco, as well as in Central America, Australia and in Southern Africa," Zoellick had then said, adding that "with TPA, important amendments to the highly successful African Growth and Opportunity Act will take effect right away, helping to lift families out of poverty in Africa," the US trade representative had said. The US Administration has started negotiations of free trade agreements with Chile and Singapore and is committed to initiate similar negotiations with other countries.

RABAT, Aug.23 - The Imilchil marriage Moussem which perpetuates a love legend will take place August 30-September 1.  The festival of lovers, which has become famous throughout the world, takes place near Imilchil, at the site of the burial place of Sidi Mohamed El Maghani, the patron saint of the Ait Haddidou. Legend has it that the marriages blessed by this holy man were happy and long-lasting. All the young people who live in the High Atlas Mountains come to participate in the "Moussem", a kind of tribal marriage Festival.  During this much appreciated event, the tribe's youth embark on looking for the ideal bride amidst a ceramic of folkloric songs and dances. The legend goes that this annual event is organized by the population of Imilchil to repent a sin, committed from time immemorial, when they refused the marriage of two young lovers who hailed from two rival branches of the same tribe.  Seeing that their relationship could never evolve into a marriage, the two lovers cried so abundantly that their tears filled two twin lakes, Isli and Tislit that gave their name to the region. This legend consecrates the noble sentiments of love and marriage as a sacred union.

Economics, 8/29/2002 Moroccan economy is poised to score a relatively steady growth in 2002, for the second consecutive year, minister of economy, finance, tourism and privatization, Fathallah OUlaalou, said Wednesday.  Morocco's GDP growth should stand at around 4.5% in 2002, compared to 6.5% in 2001, Oulaalou told the press at a briefing on the country's economic juncture. According to the minister, the favourable evolution is due to the average results scored by the agricultural campaign and the satisfactory progress of the sectors of construction and public works, energy, transport, communication and trade. The tourism sector is affected by the drop in world demand, he said adding that tourism returns during first half of 2002 amounted to 9 billion DH (nearly US $ 857.14 million), scoring an increase of 10 percent compared to the average scored during the past five years.

RABAT, Aug 28 (Reuters) - Morocco has revised down its inflation forecast for this year to 2.0 percent from 2.5 percent initially, the finance ministry said on Wednesday. The new figures appeared in a report handed to reporters at a news briefing by Finance Minister Fathallah Oualalou. Inflation in 2001 was 0.6 percent and it reached 3.2 percent in the first half of 2002 compared with a year earlier. However, the consumer price index fell 1.3 percent in June from May after a 2.8 percent drop in food prices, which had fuelled a strong rise in the first five months of the year. ((Rabat newsroom, +212-37 720065 fax +212-37 722499,

(Adds background paragraphs 4-6) RABAT, Aug 28 (Reuters) - The Moroccan budget deficit in 2002 is expected to inch up to 2.9 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 2.7 percent last year, Finance and Economy Minister Fathallah Oualalou said on Wednesday. Tourism receipts and remittances by Moroccan expatriates, both main sources of foreign currency for the North African country, are expected to decline 15 and 30 percent respectively at the end of this year, he told a news conference. Last year, tourism earned Morocco 27.8 billion dirhams ($2.61 billion) in receipts and some 2.0 million Moroccan expatriates, based mainly in Europe, transferred 36.2 billion dirhams in remittances, official figures showed. Analysts blame the decline in tourism receipts in the Muslim country on a global downturn in the leisure and travel industry after the September 11 attacks on the United States. The minister, who was briefing reporters on the economic outlook of the country, gave no reasons for the decline in expatriate remittances. Financial analysts say the introduction of the euro pushed Moroccan expatriates last year to transfer their funds to Morocco in fear of a depreciation, which translated into a 60 percent increase in the value of remittances over 2000. ((Souhail Karam, Rabat newsroom, +212-37

720065 fax +212-37 722499, rabat.newsroom@reuters.com)) ($1=10.671 Moroccan dirhams)

The number of foreign tourists in Morocco decreased from 1.2 million in first half of 2001 to 1.03 million in the same period of 2002, scoring a 13.7% decrease, Direction of the Treasury and Foreign Finances said. The decrease was mostly noted in the number of tourists from Europe (-12.2%), North America (-42.7%), the Maghreb (-27.7%) and some Asian and African countries. The sharpest falls concerns Scandinavia (-54.2%), Austria (-35%), Japan (-34.6%), Italy (-24.6%), Tunisia (-19.5%), Great Britain (-18.3%), and Germany (-15.9%).  The number of tourists from Mauritania increased by 29.6%, from Algeria by 6.7% and from Saudi Arabia by 5%. The Direction of General Economic Policy (DPEG) said the number of nights spent in hotel rooms decreased by 20.9% end of May, imputing the drop to the effects of the 9/11 events that impacted on tourism worldwide and especially in North Africa and the Middle East.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI, who was accompanied by his brother Prince Moulay Rachid, dedicated Friday afternoon in Casablanca the regional investment center of the Grand-Casablanca region. The sovereign who grants a keen interest to the decentralized management of investment heard explanations on the mission of the regional center and visited the various wings of the facility built over 1,600 m2 near the headquarters of the Wilaya of the Grand-Casablanca and the urban community of Casablanca, which are connected by a high output telecom network to ease coordination in matters of investment promotion.  The regional investment center, placed under the responsibility of the Region Wali, will help, as the sovereign had expounded in a letter to the Prime Minister last January, in enterprise creation and will extend assistance to investors. The center will also extend support to existing businesses and will improve the attracting assets of the region and promote investment opportunities in the region.  At the end of the visit, the sovereign handed the first authorization to a company set up in line with the concept of single investment desk

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020824/2002082429.html 

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- Director Martin Scorsese will receive Morocco's highest honor from King Mohammed VI at the second Marrakech International Film Festival in September, Variety reports. Scorsese will become a Commander of the Order of Ouissam Alaouite at the September 18-22 event, founded by the king to provide a forum in North Africa for cultural exchange. Prince Moulay Rachid will oversee in-person tributes to director Francis Ford Coppola and Bollywood leading light Aamir Khan, producer and star of "Laagan." Filmmaker David Lynch also is slated to attend a tribute in his honor.  In addition to the feature competition, the festival will showcase 20 pictures from Africa as well as titles from several Asian nations. Four Bollywood extravaganzas round out the sidebars

The number of Moroccan immigrants legally settled in the Spanish Southern region of Andalusia amounts to some 38,172 persons, i.e. 27.6% of the 138,127 expatriates in the region, Europa Press news agency reported, quoting official sources. The number includes 11,028 women, which is 28.8% of the Andalusia-settled Moroccan expatriates.  The Senegalese community comes second with 3,073 persons and the Algerian third with 1,625 souls.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI who was accompanied by his brother Prince Moulay Rachid chaired Thursday at the royal palace in Rabat a ministers' council. The council examined and approved a number of draft texts, including a draft law setting up the Mohammed VI Academy for the Arabic language, said the official spokesman for the Royal Palace, Hassan Aourid.  This institution is directly placed under the sovereign's high patronage and bears the sovereign's name, which evidences the special interest the sovereign grants to the materialization of the educational and cultural project provided for in the national charter on education and training, the spokesman said in a statement.  It also evidences the sovereign's keenness to set up a high level national institution, entrusted with promoting Arabic, a fundamental component of the Moroccan identity, which is so rich by its pluralism, the spokesman said.  The institution will mainly consecrate the role of the Arabic language in education, culture and sciences through its adapting to the evolution of science and technology. It will equally endeavor to modernize, simplify and rationalize Arabic to make it accessible to the whole society and to enable it cover all the sectors of activity in the country. 

The council examined and approved a draft law-decree setting up the agency for the promotion of the southern provinces, the spokesman said, adding the draft translates the sovereign's resolve to make of this agency a strong lever for an integrated economic and social development of the kingdom's southern provinces.  The council also examined and approved a draft law-decree setting up the special development zone: Tangier-Mediterranean. The text provides for the creation of an integrated economic development zone, including an international port complex as well as free economic zones and zones for tourism promotion whose carrying out will be entrusted to a special agency, as announced by the sovereign in this year's Throne Day speech. The sovereign likewise approved draft decrees creating free exportation zones within the Tangier-Mediterranean economic port complex, the spokesman said. He added that the sovereign, fulfilling the wish of his faithful subjects in the province of Jerada (north eastern Morocco), decided to integrate this province under the scope of the agency for the promotion of the northern provinces to enable it benefit from the development projects initiated by the agency. The council equally examined and approved a law-decree putting an end to the state monopoly in matters of radio and TV.

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