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Moroccan
Congress on Child Rights Calls for Involving Teenagers in Anti-Aids Struggle.
Morocco ranked fifth
economic power in Africa.
Morocco's Q1 jobless rate
down to 12.2 pct
Impact
of Toxic Gas Used by Spain Against Moroccans Probed at Meeting in Tangier .
Morocco's food
exports rise 33 percent in 2002
Arab world's GSM
markets: the biggest and the best.
H.M.
King Mohammed VI Appoints Members of Administrative Board of Royal Institute of
Amazigh Culture.
Amnesty International to
visit Morocco.
Survey says
telecoms engineers in Morocco best paid.
Moroccan Congress on Child Rights Calls for Involving Teenagers in Anti-Aids Struggle.
RABAT, June 27- The National congress on child rights wound up its two-day 9th session here
Wednesday by the adoption of several recommendations calling for enhanced partnership between the state and ngos to improve the situation of Moroccan children and for involving teenagers in struggle against AIDS. The congress, held simultaneously with the 4th session of the Moroccan child parliament, stressed the need to protect children and teenagers against AIDS and to heed their needs and concerns and called for partnership between institutions operating in the field and for involving ngos in all anti-aids struggle activities. The congress also insisted on the need to increase the number of AIDS anonymous and free diagnosis centers and to take care of AIDS orphans and recommended to integrate sexual education in school syllabi and to enhance struggle against child sexual abuse. The participants also underlined the necessity to set up efficient mechanisms to fight minors' emigration. They called in this regard for more efforts to promote the rural world and break its isolation as most minor emigrants come from the rural world. They recommended to consolidate legal implements and conduct socio-scientific studies to fight the phenomenon and stage
awareness campaigns through the National Observatory of Child Rights. Another recommendation dealt with the protection of children against drug abuse through assistance to drug addicts and their parents, awareness campaigns about the dangers of drug consumption, and the creation of regional centers to treat and follow children who are drug addicted. Other recommendations covered the situation of young girls in Morocco, the economic exploitation of children, homeless children and the children victim of ill-treatment and sexual abuse. © MAP 2001http://www.map.co.ma/mapeng/home_dep/h_dep09.htm
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Morocco ranked fifth economic power in Africa.
June 27, 2002 Addis Ababa, 26 June
Morocco is Africa's fifth largest economic power, after South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Nigeria, says the African Development Bank in its 2002 report. With a GDP estimated at 34bn US dollars, Morocco accounts for 6.2 per cent of the continent's total GDP, says a report of the Abidjan-based bank. Morocco, which does not boast any oil reserves, and has a population of 30.4m inhabitants is,
however, together with Sudan and Tunisia, part of the very restricted group that ended the last 10 years' stagnation. Morocco is also among Africa's 15 most dynamic economies. With 382.7m inhabitants and 422.2bn dollars in GDP, Africa's 10 largest economies account for 80 per cent of the continent GDP and 55 per cent of its population.Source: MAP news agency web site, Rabat, in English 27 Jun 02 /© BBC Monitoring
Copyright 2002. All Rights Reserved.
http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=displaynews&doc_id=NR20020627670.2_dd7b00013df51126
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Morocco's Q1 jobless rate down to 12.2 pct
RABAT, June 24 (Reuters) - Morocco's unemployment rate was 12.2 percent in the first quarter of this year, down slightly from 12.8 percent in the previous quarter and 12.7 percent in the first three months of 2001, state Statistics Directorate said on Monday. In urban areas, the jobless rate fell to 18.7 percent from 20.1 percent in the first quarter of last year. The country's workforce slid to 10.21 million from 10.34 million in the first quarter of 2001. Jobless graduates accounted for 23.8 percent of the total unemployed, it said. The government says 180,000 Moroccans enter the job market each year but says investment to ensure employment is not enough and the country needs to post a minimum 6.0 percent annual economic growth to absorb that figure. But the growth remains volatile due to a high reliance on rains and agriculture as frequent drought. Agriculture accounts for up to 20 percent of the country's $36-billion Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs over 40 percent of its workforce. (Rabat newsroom, +212-37 720065 fax +212-37 722499, rabat.newsroom@reuters.com)
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=1024928020nL24477130&Section=Countries&page=Morocco&channel=All%20Morocco%20News&objectid=22403786-8F1A-11D4-867000D0B74A0D7C
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Impact of Toxic Gas Used by Spain Against Moroccans Probed at Meeting in Tangier .
TANGIER, June 24 (MAP)- The impact of toxic gas used by Spain during the Rif War (1925-1927) on the health of the inhabitants of Northern Morocco was probed at a meeting here Saturday with British historian Sebastian Balfour. The meeting highlighted the scope of damages caused by the toxic gas used by Spanish forces in their war against Moroccan resistance in northern Morocco as evidenced by the high prevalence of cancer diseases in the region. Member of the Association for the Defense of Toxic Gas Victims in the Rif, Abdelouhaed Tedmouri, told the panel that leukemia, skin cancer and lung cancer affect a number of persons in the region and that 50 percent of cancer-affected children in Morocco are from the northern parts of the country. He said the only explanation to this high prevalence lies in the massive use of toxic gas by Spain, in violation of international conventions, such as the Versailles (1919) and the Geneva (1925) treaties. He said that the toxic substances-caused damages can be genetically transmitted from a generation to another and that toxic gas has a harmful effect on ecology balance. Other participants stressed the need for the Spanish government to acknowledge its responsibility, officially apologize to the victims' families and contribute to the setting up of hospital infrastructures to treat the victims.
The British historian who took the floor to expound the content of his book issued in March 2002 under the title "Abrazo Mortal" (Fatal Hug) said his work is meant to be an objective assessment of atrocities perpetrated by the Spanish war machine against Moroccan Resistance and a contribution to a better understanding of the impact of the Rif war on the Spanish political scene mainly with the rising of francoism and the ignition of civil war in Spain. The historian, who conducted research in the Spanish and French military libraries as well as on the field in the Rif region and who interviewed Rif war veterans said he has evidence showing that Spain started using toxic gas in 1921 and proceeded to massive shelling as of 1924. He stated further that it was high time for Spain to evidence courage, to assume its past and to officially offer apologizes to the victims of toxic gas. © MAP 2002
http://www.map.co.ma/mapeng/home_dep/h_dep05.htm
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Morocco's food exports rise 33 percent in 2002
Jun 24, 2002 (Al-Bawaba via COMTEX) -- Morocco exported 7.4 billion Moroccan dirhams ($72 million) worth of food products in the first four months of 2002, a 33 percent increase compared with last year's MD5.6 billion. The rise was mainly attributed to an increase in shellfish and mollusks exports, reported MAP. The nation's wheat exports reached MD2.23 billion between January and April 2002, sugar exports reached MD633 million, corn exports reached MD604 million and unprocessed vegetable oil reached MD487 million during the same period. Morocco's major exports go to Saudi Arabia, accounting for 49 percent of its inter-Arab agricultural exports, whereas 21 percent go to Algeria, five percent to Tunisia and three percent to Egypt -
By Mena Report Reporters
http://www.zawya.com/Story.cfm?id=175w1497&Section=Countries&page=Morocco&channel=All%20Morocco%20News&objectid=22403786-8F1A-11D4-867000D0B74A0D7C
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Arab world's GSM markets: the biggest and the best.
June 23, 2002
Morocco, Egypt and Saudi are the largest Arab GSM markets by numbers of subscribers. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait and Bahrain are the most developed with the highest penetration rates. Syria was a rising star in 2001 in terms of percentage growth, concludes a newly released report from the Arab Advisors Group. According to the group's projections, the relative situation at the top spots will remain the same by the end of this year. Morocco, Egypt and Saudi will remain the biggest markets by size (Saudi will have a lot more prepaid users). The UAE and Kuwait will be the most developed penetration wise and Syria will experience the biggest percent growth as well. The total number of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) subscribers in 10 examined Arab countries exceeded 16.5 million by yearend 2001. By subscribers numbers size, Morocco was the largest, followed by Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Bahrain and Syria. "These small rich markets of the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait, with profit oriented monopoly operators (in the case of UAE and Bahrain) had the highest country penetration rates with 58 percent, 42 percent and 42 percent respectively as of yearend 2001," Arab Advisors Group's analysts noted. The report has showed that Syria is a market that is well below its true potential but one that is seeing high growth. The country had the highest year on year growth rate of all Arab markets-largely due to the very small subscriber base in 2000-and that was due to the drop in connection fees, which were initially very high. Also Oman entered a high growth rate period in 2001 upon the introduction of prepaid services, increasing mobile subscribers from 156,000 in 2000 to 336,000 by yearend 2001. - (menareport.com)
http://www.Menareport.com/story/TheNews.php3?action=story&sid=217446&lang=e&dir=mena
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H.M. King Mohammed VI Appoints Members of Administrative Board of Royal Institute of Amazigh
Culture.RABAT, June 27- H.M. King Mohammed VI, who was accompanied by HRH Prince Moulay Rachid,
appointed this Thursday at the Royal Palace in Rabat, a first group of the members of the Administrative Board of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, provided for in the Cherifian Dahir (royal decree) setting up and organizing the said institute. The council is made up, besides the dean of the institute, of a maximum of 40 members. The sovereign has made an orientation address wherein he underlined the interest he grants to the promotion of the Amazigh culture in the frame of the democratic and modernist societal project, whose bases and cornerstones he tirelessly endeavors to consolidate. H.M. King Mohammed VI reasserted, in this regard, that Amazigh which is deeply rooted in the Moroccan people's history and which constitutes one of the tributaries having shaped the authentic Moroccan identity, belongs to all Moroccans, without any exception, and cannot therefore be used to political ends of whatever nature. The sovereign urged the Institute Administrative Board members to work tirelessly so that this national institution fulfill the tasks and missions entrusted to it, namely the safeguard of the Amazigh culture, insisting on the need to integrate this culture in the Moroccan educational system, in the frame of the linguistic policy orientations of the National Education and Training Charter and the consolidation of its place in the national socio-media space. The sovereign called the board members to see to it that the institute be an open, flexible space, overflowing with dynamism and liveliness, discarding all forms of isolation and partitioning, and also be a fecund space encouraging creation and scientific research, while taking into account the need to be impregnated with the culture of variety and difference, in the frame of attachment to the unity of the Moroccan identity and its unalterable sacred values.(Visit this URL for a list of Royal Institute of Amazigh members)
http://www.map.co.ma/mapeng/home_dep/h_dep13.htm
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Amnesty International to visit Morocco.
Mon 24 Jun 2002 AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Media Advisory
News Service No: 104 24 June 2002
Amnesty International to visit Morocco as part of Amnesty International's ongoing work on the human rights situation in Morocco / Western Sahara, an Amnesty International delegation has today begun a two-week research mission to Morocco / Western Sahara. The delegation will focus on the pressing issue of "disappearances", in which the cases of several hundred people, most of them Sahrawis, who "disappeared" at the hands of the Moroccan security services between the 1960s and early 1990s remain unresolved. During their visit, the delegates will also meet members of the human rights community and civil society activists on other issues, including recent allegations of torture or ill-treatment by the security forces and human rights abuses in the Polisario camps. Public Document
For more information please call Amnesty International's press office in London, UK, on
+44 20 7413 5566 Amnesty International, 1 Easton St., London WC1X 0DW.http://www.moroccodaily.com/p/25/1beb359acc8c.html
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Survey says telecoms engineers in Morocco best paid.
RABAT, June 26 (Reuters) - A survey conducted in Morocco by an international employment agency showed on Wednesday the telecoms engineers have an average gross wage of 381,450
dirhams ($35,950) per year, or the best salary compared of any sector. The Casablanca-based Capital Consulting firm, a partner of U.S. ION management Consulting group said it took eight months to collect the information as it covered 35 large private and public firms operating in the business area of Casablanca and Rabat. "Our survey, the first of its kind in Morocco showed that engineers working in the telecoms sector were the best paid compared to employees in other sectors," Abdelmounim Faouzi, a senior manager at Capital Consulting told Reuters. The surveyed firms operate in the sectors of telecoms, finance and services. The 90-page survey was focused on human resources managers aged between 35 and 50. Marketing managers were also among the privileged with an average gross annual salary of 231,000 dirhams. The minimum wage in Morocco stands at the equivalent of $170 per month. ($1=10.609 Moroccan Dirham)(Rabat newsroom, +212-37 720065 fax +212-37 722499, rabat.newsroom@reuters.com)
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