FOM Newsletter June 2002
Morocco Week in Review June 1, 2002 

Morocco and the United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) signed in Rabat on Friday three agreements providing for cooperation in population and development strategies. Under the agreements, part of the 2002-2006 cooperation program, a budget of 1.7 million US$ (1.02 Mln from the Fund's own resources and 680,000 from the state budget) will be earmarked to integrate population and gender issues in development planning, to methodological research and to the creation of a social-demographic data bank for the Marrakesh region. The projects will be carried out by Moroccan partners, the center of demographic studies and research, the national institute of applied statistics and economy and the ministry of economic forecasts and planning. The agreements were initialed by Moroccan economic forecasts and planning, Abdelhamid Aouad, and the UNFPA representative in Morocco, Vincent Fauveau.

Investments in the Moroccan tourism sector have reached in 2001 3.69 billion Dirhams (US$ 320.8 million), marking an increase of 60% compared to 2000, says the department of foreign investments. These investments have created an additional 21,526 beds and 8,927 direct jobs. In January 2001, French resort chain operator "Club-Mediterranee" signed with Morocco a convention providing for the construction of 5 new compounds and extend two others, for a total investment of 1.3 billion DH (US$ 113.04 million). A Moroccan-Saudi group also signed in October 2001 with Moroccan authorities two conventions for the creation of several hotels and tourism projects, for a total investment of 1.2 billion DH (US$ 113 Million). In the same month, British "Golder Western and Mediterranean Growth Fund" launched a project, worth 1.1 billion DH (US$ 95.6 million), to build four hotels and a golf green in Ouarzazate (southern Morocco). Other investments are conducted by Emirates group Liwa International" for the extension and renovation of three five-star hotels for a total cost of 200 million DH (US$ 17.4 Mln), French "Accor" which will build a tourism compound in the Atlantic sea resort of Agadir for an investment of 300 million DH (US$ 26.08 Mln). The department notes that the largest conventions were signed after September 11, which is an evidence that promoters are convinced that the tourism crisis is only temporary. Meanwhile, tourism arrivals progressed in the same year by 3.2% while tourism receipts, estimated at 27.3 billion DH (US$ 2.37 billion), regressed by 48.4% compared to 2000.  

Despite a relatively difficult period between September and December 2001, 2002 promises to be a good year for tourism, as for the only month of February 293,319 foreign tourists visited Morocco, compared to 181,147 in the same month of 2001. Morocco ambitions to attract 10 million tourists annually by 2010 and has, accordingly, embarked on a new policy offering new incentives to investors.  

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020527/2002052734.html

King Mohammed dedicates rural training center; micro-loans and basic business management.

Morocco's King Mohammed VI, who was accompanied by Prince Moulay Rachid, dedicated on Friday the "Dar Douar Ouled Said" center for the training of children and adults in the rural locality of Lahgagcha (near El-Jadida, south of Casablanca). The sovereign visited the center's classroom, library and training workshop. A total of 69 children from the village  will benefit from courses given at the center. The center also dispenses to the village inhabitants literacy courses, vocational training and health-awareness courses. It extends micro-loans and basic business management courses. It is part of a program conducted by the Mohammed V solidarity foundation for the building of six similar centers in the region, for a total cost of 25 million Dirhams (US$ 2.17 Mln). The program ambitions the schooling of 3,000 children, teach 5,400 adults reading and writing, train 11,000 youth, give health-awareness courses to 7,000 and extend between 7,200 and 9,000 micro-loans. It will also generate 86 permanent jobs.

RABAT, May 23 (Reuters) - Morocco's total cereals harvest for the 2001/02 campaign is expected to stand at least at 5.0 million tonnes from 4.56 million tonnes in the previous campaign, a senior government official said on Thursday. The Socialist-led government based its 2002 budget on a 6.0 million tonnes harvest with a GDP growth of 4.5 percent. Agriculture contributes up to 20 percent of the country's $36-billion Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Morocco is among the main cereals importing countries in the world due to frequent drought. Speaking after a ministers meeting chaired by King Mohammed on Thursday, the official told Reuters soft wheat harvest is expected to stand at 2.42 million tonnes. He gave no comparative figures for the previous season. Durum wheat harvest is expected to stand at least at 1.0 million tonnes and barley at least at 1.51 million tonnes.The official, who declined to be named, said soft wheat harvest can rise to 2.6 million tonnes under good weather conditions in the coming weeks. "Cereals planted areas stood at around 4.4 million hectares out of the total arable land of 5.6 million hectares," he said. Analysts have expected a slight rise in the harvest compared with last year because of better rainfall. The official said the total cereals harvest for this year can rise up to 5.5 million tonnes and durum wheat can go up to 1.2 million tonnes, under positive weather conditions by the end of this month.  The harvest usually starts in Morocco as early as May and ends at the latest in August, depending on the geographical position of the cereals planted areas. The North Africa country suffered from harsh drought over the previous three years. Cereals harvest in the 1999/2001 campaign stood at 1.8 million tonnes. The official added that water reserves, stocked in the country's 60 dams, improved in recent weeks to stand now at around 7.0 billion cubic metres.

(Rabat newsroom, +212-37 720065 fax +212-37 722499, rabat.newsroom@reuters.com)

May 27, 2002 (Al-Bawaba via COMTEX) -- Moroccan ready-made garments and textile exports to the European Union (EU) decreased by 9.3 percent in the first quarter of 2002. Sales dropped from $400 million to $363 million in the first three months of the year, confirmed Moroccan Garment Industry Association figures. The association attributed the losses to an increase in competition with Asian textile vendors and a decrease in European demand for ready-made clothing. The association predicted that sales would reach $2.8 billion in 2002. Textiles are one of the most important sectors in Morocco. In 1999, the sector comprised over 1472 production units employing approximately 196,000 people - predominantly women Close to 50 percent of the production units involved in the sector are small and medium sized firms. The production of nearly 1000 companies representing 56 percent of the total number of industrial exporting companies is partially or totally export orientated. - (menareport.com)  

By Mena Report Reporters (C) All rights reserved. Menareport.com

The customs and indirect taxes administration has published a guidebook for Moroccan expatriates. The guidebook contains general information on the customs duties applied to personal goods and property, imported cars and exemptions. The administration's site (www.douane.gov.ma) also features special links for Moroccans living abroad.

http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/020529/2002052934.html

Italy opens 15.5 million euro credit line for Moroccan small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Italian government decided to open a credit line of 15.5 million Euro for Moroccan small and medium-sized enterprises. The loans, to be paid back on 7 years, carry a 5.25% interest rate, Serena Massimi from the Italian cooperation department said. Speaking at an information day held in Casablanca Monday by the committee of Italian operators in Morocco and the Italian commerce chamber in Morocco under the theme "Morocco and Italy, together for enterprise upgrading", Massimi said that to help the private sector improve its competitiveness, the Italian government set up a program based on technical assistance and financial support. Units of investment promotion (UPI) will be managing these programs and helping operators with their projects and business plans and find commercial and industrial partners either in Morocco or abroad. They will also help them find financing sources, she said. The credit line is restrained to enterprises which have conceived employment-generating projects, and whose sales does not exceed 75 million Dirhams (US $ 6.5 million).

"The Secret Garden of Diplomats," a show of poetry, music, dance and theatre with Morocco- based diplomats starring, was unveiled Wednesday to the public in the Moroccan antic bastion of Chellah in Rabat. "For the first time in Morocco, diplomats go on stage in an artistic adventure in a cultural exchange," says Ms. Yolanda Jah, spouce of the President of the Foundation of Islamic Culture, and member of the event's organizing committee. Ambassadors of several countries, including the European Union, Saudi Arabia, Benin and Brazil joined together, each one reading poems, or performing of a drama troupe to the great pleasure of the public. The evening peaked with a play performed by the ambassadors and telling the story of Edmond Rostand, a 33-year-old academic and romantic, who lived in the 17th century. The event was sponsored by the Diplomatic Circle of Rabat, a non-profit organization, mustering spouses of foreign ambassadors based in Rabat.

Morocco has said that it has devised a new policy geared towards generalizing the schooling of children below the age of 6."Morocco has set as a national objective the generalization of the schooling of children below the age of 6 part of a new policy involving all actors of the educational sector," Moroccan education minister, Abdellah Saaf, told a meeting Tuesday in the central province of Haouz, near Marrakesh. The schooling of children stands currently at 90 percent, the official said, deeming the figure a gain of the policy implemented by the government. The generalization of schooling and the promotion of a quality education is a drive that should be conclusive through the implementation of a package of logistical, human and financial resources, Saaf said.

Chairman of the Moroccan-Japanese Friendship group, Badreddine Snoussi, met in Rabat Tuesday a delegation from the Japanese Alliance for Friendship with Morocco over various aspects of economic and cultural cooperation. The two men probed means to foster cooperation by expanding it to other fields, in order to strengthen Japan's presence in Morocco in investments and technologies transfer, the House of Advisors (upper parliamentary chamber) said in a release. The meeting also discussed cultural and human aspects of Rabat-Tokyo ties, the release goes on. The Japanese delegation is currently visiting Morocco to foster human, cultural and economic bilateral relations.

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