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

Over USD 70Mn allocated to student financial aid every year in Morocco.
Rabat, July 12

Some USD 73Mn are allocated every year directly or indirectly to social benefits for students, affirmed on Wednesday Minister of Higher Education, Habib EL Malki. Speaking at the House of Representatives' question time on "generalizing financial aid in higher education for rural students", Mr. El Malki noted, in a statement read by State Secretary for Literacy and non-Formal Education, that such a sum represents two thirds of the functioning budget of the ministry.

He added that MAD 49Mn are earmarked to scholarships, which represents over 71% of the social benefits budget. Mr. El Malki also recalled that overall rate of scholarship recipients has reached 97.14 % in 38 provinces, adding that the southern provinces and some underprivileged regions benefit from a full coverage.

According to the minister, the number of scholarships granted in 2007 rose 11% compared to last year. He also stressed that his department had seen to it that financial assistance covers at least 92% of the regions that have universities. Mr. El Malki pointed out that the capacity of higher education institutions has increased from 298,983 in 2005-2006 to 303,627 in 2006-2007, adding that a sum of USD 17.5Mn was allotted in 2006 to improve training and research conditions in Moroccan universities.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/box5/over_usd_70mn_alloca/view
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Over 700k benefited from non-formal education programs in 2006-2007, Minister.
Rabat, July 13

Some 709,155 people benefited from the non-formal education program in the 2006-07 academic year, State Secretary for non-formal education, Anis Birou revealed here on Thursday. Speaking at the closing ceremony of the program, Mr. Birou voiced pride that Morocco has obtained the recognition of international organizations, namely the UNESCO International Literacy Prize, an award offered to the world's best non-formal education programs. The minister ascribed this performance to the concerted efforts of the government, NGOs and the civil society, as well as the beneficiaries.

Beneficiaries of the program stood in the 2005-06 academic year at 655,478, according to figures released at the end of 2006. Morocco aspires to provide literacy classes to one million people per year, and to lower the illiteracy rate to 20% by 2010 - it affects today 39% of Moroccans, which put Morocco at the 125th place in the UNESCO 2005 rating of countries where illiteracy is high. The northwestern African kingdom also plans to eradicate this phenomenon by 2015.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/imp_social/over_700k_benefited/view
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Government signs 3 MoUs to establish tourism investment funds.
Rabat, July 13

The Moroccan government has signed, here Friday, with local financial groups three Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) of over USD 1.22Bn to create three tourism investment funds. "The endorsement of these memoranda will make it possible to accompany Morocco's development strategy in the fields of tourism and hostelry," said Moroccan Prime Minister, Driss Jettou, who chaired the signing ceremony. These investments will fund development as well as equipping hotel units, part of tourist zones provided for by the "Azur plan" that aims at building six tourist resorts of a 120,000 bed capacity, a communiqué of the Prime Minister’s office explained.

The first MoU, amounting to USD 799Mn, was signed with "H Partners" investment fund (created by Attijari Wafabank), while the second agreement, worth some USD 737.5Mn, was inked with "Maghreb Siyaha Fund", a subsidiary of the BMCE Bank group. The third Memorandum, amounting to 245.8Mn, was sealed with the "Madaef" funds, which was created by Morocco's financial group "Caisse de Dépôts et de Gestion (CDG).
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/imp_economy/government_signs_3_m/view
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Morocco's Dangerous Mystique: Exotic hotels and busy markets are drawing travelers, despite the risks
By STAN SESSER / The Wall Street Journal: /  July 7, 2007 MARRAKESH, Morocco

I'm walking back to my hotel after an evening enjoying the public square here, full of busy cafes and snake charmers. But the day ends on a jarring note. As I pick my way down twisting alleys too narrow for cars, I soon realize that I'm lost. A teenage boy presses upon me his services as a "guide," and he is so persistent that I eventually take shelter in a little open-front restaurant.

Visiting Morocco can evoke that kind of anxiety. There are real safety concerns: The U.S. State Department says the potential for "violence against American interests and citizens remains high." But more tourists keep coming, drawn by an unusual combination of modern glamour and ancient history. Some 6.5 million people visited Morocco last year, up almost 50% since 2002.

Hundreds of old family mansions, called riads, are being converted into small, luxurious hotels. There are beaches on both the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, mountains for hiking and vast stretches of desert for four-wheel-drive touring. The drive across the High Atlas Mountains to the town of Aït Benhaddou, the ancient mud-walled kasbah featured in "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Gladiator," is worth a trip to the country in itself.

Above all there is Fez, the cultural capital, and Marrakesh, a city that captures the fun and frantic spirit of the country. Both have vast medinas, the old Arab quarters, which are full of twisting streets. The Fez medina is comparatively sedate and reflects more of the country's history, while the Marrakesh medina throbs with the intensity and prosperity that the tourist revolution has brought. Zooming motorbikes on the cobblestone streets send pedestrians scurrying for cover; rug merchants will grab the arm of visitors and attempt to pull them into their shops; restaurants try to lure you to the outdoor dining tables that give you a ringside seat on all the action.

Whether it's taking a trip to Bali beaches, visiting the great monuments of Jerusalem or braving the notorious crime in South Africa to go on a safari, instinct, rather than government warnings, seems to prevail for many travelers in the decision on traveling to any particular country. And that instinct apparently counts heavily on the trendiness of the destination, rather than on a weighing of the actual safety factors.

Morocco, for instance, isn't on the list of more than two dozen countries that the State Department recommends Americans avoid. But the country has sustained terrorist attacks, and violence is a potential daily threat. In March, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a Casablanca Internet cafe, wounding several people. In April, two men blew themselves up in Casablanca near the U.S. Consulate and the American Language Center, just five days after three bombers did the same after being cornered by police.

Michael Brein, a Portland, Ore., psychologist who specializes in travel, calls the interest in more risky destinations "the Cancún effect," a reference to the fact that Mexico's upscale beach resort remains popular despite other parts of the country being plagued with robberies, abductions and extortion attempts. "We seek romance, excitement and adventure just to the point of danger, which is a fine line," he states. "And the more expensive and exotic the destinations and hotels, the more secure the tourists will feel."

But is Morocco really dangerous? Despite the night I got lost in the Marrakesh medina, Morocco is generally a safe place to visit. The streets of the medinas are patrolled by plainclothes policemen, who will yank away and interrogate a young local man for even approaching a tourist. Penalties for crimes against foreigners are so severe that incidents of crime are minimal, hotel owners and tourism officials claim. Morocco is "much safer than Europe," insists Adil Douiri, the country's tourism minister. "Crime figures show this."

Peter Sporn, an associate professor of medicine at Northwestern University, who was on vacation in Marrakesh with his family and friends, says he hasn't felt a moment of danger. "There's no hostility. None," he says. "We've encountered no one who has had a bad experience."

The phenomenon of the riad has been one of the saviors of Moroccan tourism, a factor that helps put it into a category entirely apart from other Arab lands. Mr. Douiri boasts that the riad -- found only in the medinas of Fez and Marrakesh -- is "a unique product; there's no competition. A hotel is a hotel, but a riad is Morocco."

Moroccan families who own crumbling old mansions are discovering that they can sell them for a small fortune to be turned into these high-end boutique hotels. Marrakesh, the center of Moroccan tourism, got its first one only a decade ago, but today there are more than 500. Fez, the cultural capital, has 40.

Although prices of rooms in riads run up to $1,000, and although they lack some of the amenities of larger hotels, many are booked solid six months in advance. Morocco is primarily a destination for European vacationers, but so many Americans are now patronizing the high-end riads that when I had dinner in one, all 12 people in the four-table dining room were from the U.S.

While the riads are indeed luxurious, there's a downside. The rooms are long and narrow, with windows only on one side looking out into the inner courtyard. You have to keep your curtains closed since guests are walking past, making the rooms dark and stuffy. And since the alleys are too narrow for taxis, going out for dinner can be a hassle.

In Marrakesh, the British co-owner of Riad Noir d'Ivoire, Jill Fechtmann, can still barely believe what happened when her riad opened its doors last year in mid-December. "We were totally naïve," she says. "In 24 hours we were fully booked for Christmas and New Year's. We have guests who have already been here two or three times."

She calls Marrakesh "unbelievable": "It's so fashionable it's now the St. Tropez of Northern Africa."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118375412029159449.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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Spanish investors seek to develop biofuel production in Morocco.
13/07/2007

Spanish investors are interested in investing in agro-industrial projects in Morocco aimed at producing biofuel from the Jatropha plant -- a hardy plant from South America with high oil content. Morocco’s Minister for Energy and Mines, Mohammed Boutaleb, said Moroccan authorities are willing to provide all the facilities necessary for the future success of this project. "Spanish investors have conducted studies in various regions of

Morocco, looking for land suitable for Jatropha cultivation," he told Magharebia. "We expect them to present their suggestions over the next few days, with the aim of entering into an investment agreement with the Moroccan government." Boutaleb went on to say that the Moroccan state is prepared to work with the Spanish investors to make the necessary land available to them, provided that the land is not agricultural, is located in semi-arid regions, and the investors agree to use water-saving agricultural techniques, such as drip-feed irrigation. Boutaleb added that studies conducted by the Spanish investors are encouraging, as they show that biofuels will meet 2% of Morocco’s energy needs by 2012, when the Jatropha fields will have reached maturity and begun to enter the large-scale industrial production phase of biofuel.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2007/07/13/newsbrief-08
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Moroccan bike rally touts tolerance and openness.
13/07/2007

The 4th Moroccans of the World Biking Rally, organised this year under the slogan "Together on the Road to Tolerance and Openness", set off today from Tangiers. Organised by the Ministry for Moroccan Communities Abroad, the rally will cover 1600km along a route from Tangiers to Casablanca, passing though Ksar es Sghir, Tetouan, Chefchaouen, Wazan, Meknes, Khenifra, Bani Malal, Marrakesh, Essaouira, Asfi and El-Jadida, ending up in Casablanca. A statement issued by the Ministry indicated that the selection of Tangiers as the rally's starting point arose from Moroccan expats' desire to support the city's candidature as host of the International Exhibition in 2012. http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/sports/2007/07/13/newsbrief-02
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IFC grants $20m loan for private sector development in Morocco.
10/07/2007

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group's private sector arm has approved a loan of $20m to Morocco for the promotion of micro-enterprises, PANA reported on Tuesday (July 10th). The funds will be managed by the "Al-Amana" association, which operates in the field of micro-finance. The funds will support low-income Moroccans in developing income-generating activities and improving their living conditions. Al-Amana currently has more than 400,000 customers in the country. http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/newsbriefs/general/2007/07/10/newsbrief-05
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Call for bids in Moroccan domestic tourism projects. 
By Lahcen Moqnia 08/07/2007

Morocco's Ministry of Tourism announced it will open contracts to build and operate new domestic tourism facilities to international investors. These projects fall under the Biladi Plan to promote domestic tourism in Morocco. Omar Bennani, Director of Investments at the Moroccan Ministry of Tourism, announced the start of an international competition to construct and operate eight new tourism destinations in Morocco targeted to domestic travellers.

During a press conference Wednesday (July 4th) in Casablanca, Bennani said the plan for each of these destinations, which will range from 30 to 40 hectares in area, contains both tourism and real estate components, to ensure the project’s financial balance. He noted the investment cost for these projects is an estimated $200m. Bennani said investors winning contracts will benefit from a climate favourable to investment due to Moroccan measures to stimulate tourism. The government has already announced it will offer the land to be developed at nominal cost, ranging from $2.50 to $6 per square metre.

These projects fall under the Biladi Plan to promote domestic tourism in Morocco, by creating sufficient space to accommodate Moroccan families. The plan's current aim is to boost lodging by 30,000 beds by 2010. Bennani said the tourist destinations will be located near the cities of Casablanca, Rabat, Tangier, Agadir, El Jadida, Fez, Oujda and Marrakech, on tourism sites already known to attract Moroccan tourists and easy to develop due to their proximity to roads and water and electric supply networks.

The government has invited bids on three destinations within this plan, according to Bennani, who indicated that interested investors may obtain detailed information about the projects from the Ministry of Tourism, beginning Wednesday (July 4th). The first project to receive bids is on 40 hectares coastline in Sidi Abed, 30 km south of the city of El Jadida. The second is on 30 hectares of the Imi Ouaddar coast, near the city of Agadir. The site is close to the Taghazout resort area, where US group Colony Capital is establishing a high-end international tourism destination. The third project is located in the city centre of Ifrane, capital of the Atlas Mountains. Thirty hectares were also allotted to this project. Each of the three projects will include hotels, vacation homes and campgrounds, in addition to commercial and entertainment facilities.

Bidding is scheduled to begin July 14th, according to the Ministry of Tourism. Ranking and selection of bids will take place in January 2008, with final agreements to be signed in March 2008. The Biladi Plan is a component of Morocco's Vision 2010 strategy for tourism development, which also includes the Azur Plan to establish new, high-end international tourism destinations, and the Mada’in Plan to promote Moroccan cultural tourism in historical cities.
http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/07/08/feature-02
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