Virtual Magazine of Morocco on the Web
Morocco Week in Review 
January 16, 2010

Morocco to launch Regional debate on National Environmental Charter.
Rabat

The National Charter for the Environment and Sustainable Development will be debated at the regional level starting January 18, Energy minister Amina Benkhadra said on Thursday. This debate will be conducted through workshops which will address all the environment-related problems facing the regions, Benkhadra told radio channel Medi I on the occasion of presenting the Charter's draft at a meeting in Skhirat (Rabat outskirts).

Benkhadra stressed that the viewpoint of all citizens and public and private partners will be taken into account so as to make the Charter reflect the interests of all Moroccans. She recalled that the Charter includes "the polluter pays principle" which will be implemented through appropriate rules and regulations. Benkhadra noted that the Charter ains at making the environment's preservation and sustainable development a national priority and raising the awareness of Moroccan citizens.

The charter provides for the creation of solid and liquid waste treatment facilities, and wastewater recycling with the aim of treating an annual 260 million m3 of wastewater that will be used for irrigation. Under the charter, the government will also take into consideration environment preservation in all tender specifications for the implementation of development projects.

A website on the charter was launched, serving as an interactive tool to support national consultations and raise the population's awareness of the need to participate in the elaboration of the charter. The site includes news articles, contributions by different state institutions and a TV web to cover the consultation workshops. The www.charteenvironnement.ma is available in four languages: Arabic, French, English and Spanish.http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/home/morocco_to_launch_re/view
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Dam filling rate over 80% in Morocco.
Rabat

The filling rate of Morocco's dams reached over 81% with a total volume of 12.6 billion cubic meters, Secretary of State for Water and the Environment Abdelkabir Zahoud said on Thursday. The latest rainfall have generated a total of 5 billion m3 with an estimated water stock of over 2.8 billion m3, Zahoud told the TV channel "Al Oula".Rainfall in Morocco was very heavy in the latest days, exceeding 100 mm on Wednesday.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/economy/dam_filling_rate_ove/view
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Morocco allocates $220 million to combat drop-out -minister.
Fez

Morocco's Education Minister announced, on Friday, that a budget of 1.73 billion DH ($220 million) has been allocated this year "to tackle the socio-economic obstacles to education for a large number of children, against 760 million last year". Ahmed Akhchichine said, at a meeting of the board of directors of the education academy of the Fez-Boulmane region, that the budget aims at achieving the targets of the emergency programme.He highlighted the need for his department to promote the management of resources allotted to the sector to achieve those objectives.Speaking at the same meeting, Fes-Boulemane region's wali noted that since 2006, 6 school libraries and 14 multi-purpose classrooms have been built and 2 sports projects have been launched for some 2.25 million dirhams as part of the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH).The INDH was launched in mid-2005 to fight poverty, marginalization and social exclusion.
http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/morocco_allocates_2/view
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About 5 million Moroccans benefited from anti-poverty initiative.
Rabat

More than 4.8 million Moroccan people have benefited from the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), launched by HM King Mohammed VI in mid-2005. As part of this ambitious programme, geared towards combating poverty and social exclusion and marginalization, some 19,618 projects have been carried out, worth 11.13 billion dirhams ($1.4 billion) up to November 2009, according to the initiative’s national assistant coordinator.Soulaiman El Hajam noted, during the annual meeting with the heads of social affairs departments, that 6,110 programmes were carried out in rural areas and 3.6 in urban areas.More than four years after its launch, the INDH resulted in a tangible improvement in living conditions, with poverty rate declining from 14% to 9% at national level, and from 36% to 21% in rural areas targeted by the initiative. http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/about_5_million_moro/view
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Morocco has made 'remarkable progress' in human development, UNDP says.
By Safae El Yaaqoubi Marrakech

Morocco has made "remarkable progress" in the field of human development, Director of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Geneva Cécile Molinier said. "There is a strong political will at the highest level to address the challenge of human development," Moliner said in an interview with MAP, adding that these efforts encourage several development partners to engage in more coordinated cooperation with Morocco.The UN official, who expressed optimism about the prospects of development in Morocco, recalled the pioneering "ART GOLD" project, which aims to reinforce national strategies in the field of local development and governance through the harmonization of the actions of international players within decentralized cooperation throughout Moroccan regions."The added value of this approach is to enable local development actors to have access to resources and know-how of the UNDP," she said, confirming the readiness of the UN program to accompany Morocco's efforts in the field.For the UNDP official, Morocco is an active actor in south-south cooperation and actively contributes to new development programs mainly in Senegal and Mauritania.Moliner said the decentralized approach of development supported by the UNDP in Morocco is an “exemplary and efficient model,” which would be proposed to sub-Saharan countries. “The Kingdom of Morocco which has a long and strong tradition of cooperation with sub-Saharan countries will be certainly solicited.” Molinier also stressed the importance the 5th Africities Summit, held in Marrakech (December 16-20), saying that it is an occasion to be in touch with development partners and determine the need of the African continent.The traditional modes of development have proved inefficient, she said, adding that there is a need to rethink policies of local development within a new form of “multilateralism.” http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/morocco_has_made__re/view
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A trip down memory lane
Marrakesh: myths, mint and memories.
Saturday's Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Jan. 08, 2010
Four decades after her mother left Morocco, Olivia Stren heads into its sharp sunlight to sample Marrakesh's bold flavours, strong colours and luxurious hospitality………...http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/travel/marrakesh-myths-mint-and-memories/article1423960/
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Morocco launches first Amazigh TV channel.
By Siham Ali — 11/01/10

The new television channel for Morocco's Amazigh audience "will strengthen our national identity", one viewer says. An Amazigh-language TV channel first proposed three years ago finally hit Moroccan airwaves on January 6th, satisfying a long-awaited demand by a significant percentage of the country’s citizens. During the first phase of broadcast operations, set to run until March, programmes in Amazigh dialects Tachelhit, Tarifit and Tamazight will air for six hours each day during the week and ten hours on the week-ends. The Tamazight channel features "discussions of politics, economics, sport and religion, alongside evening entertainment programmes aimed at children and young people," station manager Mohamed Mamad said last Wednesday at a Rabat press conference held to announce the long-awaited launch. The array of broadcast offerings "will reflect Moroccan values of openness, tolerance and modernity", Mamad added.

Speaking at the same press conference, Communications Minister Khalid Naciri said the new channel would be a media outlet for "openness, tolerance, modernity and development". "Tamazight will bring huge added value, because it will play a part in promoting the Amazigh culture and language, a major pillar of Moroccan identity," he noted. For Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) director Ahmed Boukous, the project launch was an "historic event" signalling a "new process in state policy in the field of information". "This new channel belongs to all Moroccans, without exception," added the IRCAM chief, whose organisation shares production and training responsibilities for the channel with the National Radio and Television Company (SNRT). Abdellah Bouchetart, a journalist for the Tamazight channel, said the new arrival meets the "social and cultural needs of Moroccan society, which is characterised by its cultural diversity". While many ordinary Amazigh citizens hailed the launch of the channel, which had been postponed several times by legal, organisational and financial issues, others felt the pilot schedule did go far enough to satisfy the needs of a large community. Some 28% of Moroccans speak Berber dialects Tarifit, Tamazight or Tachelhit, according to the most recent census. "The channel is a necessity and has nothing to do with [ethnic] chauvinism; rather, it has to do with the need to raise the profile of a culture that has until now received little media attention," said economics student Samira Benchehboune. "The simple presence of Amazigh in public [television] programming still falls short of our aspirations," she added. "Even the treatment of the reduced number of programmes to be shown is less than we might have hoped for. We're expecting Tamazight to put out programmes that cover Amazighs of all walks of life." "Tamazight will strengthen our national identity, and will allow many Moroccans living in remote regions to feel that they're part of a rich and diverse Morocco," said bank clerk Hassan Agourram. "I have family members who only speak Amazigh and can't understand Arabic," he added. "They can't follow the programmes on the Moroccan channels. From now on, Tamazight will change their lives and their vision." http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/01/11/feature-02
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Morocco’s minorities finally get on the air.
John Thorne, Foreign Correspondent /  January 11. 2010

Nadia Soussi, a journalist and presenter at Morocco’s new Tamazight-language TV channel, practicing a newscast in the studio in Rabat, the Moroccan capital. John Thorne / The NationalRABAT // Nadia Soussi licks her lips, peers at the teleprompter and in a calm, flat voice recites, “Inghameesen ntelefizion ntamazight gharibat azoul filon!” – “Tamazight television news in Rabat, welcome!”

“OK, let’s try again, but relax your pose a bit,” says Rachid Iken, Ms Soussi’s editor, observing her from a corner of the studio.

The newscast is a dry run. Soussi, 28, is practising for a new job at a new kind of TV station in Morocco: one dedicated to broadcasting in Tamazight, the language of the country’s Amazigh, or Berber, minority.Officially launched last week by Morocco’s state-owned TV and radio company, Tamazight Channel is the latest effort to boost Amazigh culture and language by a government keen to avoid political clashes along ethno-linguistic lines.

Some Amazigh activists say such gestures distract from calls for political reform. But for Tamazight Channel’s director, Mohamed Mamad, they “serve to consolidate the unity of the country”.While 30 per cent of the station’s programmes will be in Arabic, the rest will air – with Arabic subtitles – in Tamazight, a distant relative of Arabic spoken in several dialects by Amazigh communities across North Africa.

That is what attracted Soussi, a former radio journalist who grew up speaking the language near the city of Marrakech, once the imperial capital of the Almoravids, a medieval Amazigh dynasty.“I’m comfortable in Tamazight, and I’m serving people who don’t speak Arabic,” she said.

In recent decades, demand for jobs and education has pushed more Moroccans into big cities, where Arabic is dominant.

But up among the pines of the Rif mountains, in terraced Atlas highlands and on the red plain of the Souss valley, pockets remain where only Tamazight is spoken.

Nobody knows quite when the Amazighs arrived in North Africa. The earliest record of them may be prehistoric rock carvings of war chariots in the Sahara.They watched later conquerors come and go – Carthaginians, Romans, Vandals, Byzantines – secure in the mountains and the depths of the desert. But when Arabs invaded in the seventh century, they swiftly adopted Islam.

Today, most North Africans are of mixed Amazigh and Arab ancestry but consider themselves Arabs. Of the minority that identifies as Amazigh, the largest group lives in Morocco, making up about a third of the country’s 32 million people.After Morocco gained independence from its coloniser, France, in 1956, the government set about Arabising the country, prompting Amazighs to organise in defence of their culture.

In 2001, King Mohamed VI changed direction in order to head off political trouble, declaring the Amazighs integral to Morocco.

Nevertheless, a hard core of the Amazigh movement “is radicalising quite rapidly”, said Michael Willis, professor of Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies at Oxford University’s Middle East Centre. “They’re even talking about regional autonomy.”That has Moroccan leaders looking nervously at the example of neighbouring Algeria, where Amazigh activism has boiled over into unrest, Prof Willis said.

In spring 2001, riots and clashes between Amazigh demonstrators and police tore through Algeria’s Kabylie region; the government promptly made Tamazight an official language and in 2005 set up the country’s first Tamazight television station.

Despite such concessions, Kabylie remains a stronghold of major Algerian opposition parties born from the country’s Amazigh movement.“In Morocco, there’s a much larger Berber-speaking community than in Algeria,” Prof Willis said. “But the government understands that if you keep Amazigh issues cultural, you stop them from becoming political.”

Since 2001, the Moroccan government has set up the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture and introduced Tamazight into some schools and media.

The long-awaited Tamazight Channel is the latest such initiative. But some activists remain sceptical.
“The station will sometimes broadcast a discourse that goes against our interests,” said Ahmed Dghirni, president of the Democratic Moroccan Berber Party, which calls for democratic reforms to promote Amazigh culture and was banned in 2008 as an ethnically-based party.

But on the plus side, “it will spread the use of our language and deepen the recognition of our existence”, Mr Dghirni said.

In the Tamazight Channel studio, Soussi is running her lines and trying to get the hang of the teleprompter foot pedal.
For now, the station is running test reels, but full programming will begin in March. Soussi wants to highlight women athletes “because women are under-represented in sport, especially Amazigh women”.

Her fair skin, dark eyes and high full cheeks show her own Amazigh roots. When she recites, her words are quick and rasping. They sound like Arabic but are not.

Suddenly the audio link goes dead. Iken departs for the control room, leaving Soussi standing alone in the middle of the studio.“Can you hear me?” she asks the microphone clipped to her lapel. Then again, louder. “Can you hear me?”

After a minute, Iken returns. “It’s OK, they can hear you now,” he says.

“Sorry about the wait,” crackles a technician’s voice over the intercom. Once again, Ms Soussi cues the teleprompter, straightens her jacket and begins to speak.http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100112/FOREIGN/701119862/1135/commentary
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Maternal, infant mortality rate in Morocco down 8.4% in 1st half of 2009.
Rabat

The maternal and infant mortality rate in public hospitals declined by 8.4% over the first half of 2009, the health minister said. Yasmina Baddou described this rate as encouraging because the result comes while the ministry started implementing an action plan aimed at reducing maternal mortality as part of the "safe maternity" programme.She was speaking at the House of Representatives' question time on Wednesday.
The minister said a host of measures were taken, resulting in a considerable improvement in the indicators of medical consultation before delivery (15%), delivery under surveillance (6%) and caesarian section (13%). http://www.map.ma/eng/sections/social/maternal_infant_mor/view
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First money transfer service for Morocco.

Wednesday 13 January 2010
Merième Addou, AfricaNews reporter in Rabat, Morocco
Maroc telecom has launched Mobicash, Morocco's first trials of mobile debit payment service. This first service of money transfer and payment by cell phone has been the object of an agreement signed between Morocco Telecom operators and Attijariwafa bank and the Central 'Banque Populaire'.

MobiCash is a complete mobile payment platform that works immediately on every existing cell phone. Transactions are securely signed with NSDT (Near Sound Data Transfer), a technology that sends “cryptosounds” through the phone’s audio channel to enable contact-less mobile payment.

This new service allows operators to provide their subscribers with variety of services and conduct, secure transactions such as deposit and withdrawal of money from Mobicash accounts in all Telecom agencies. It also provides bill payments, money transfers across Morocco as well as mobile banking and international remittances services.

This could be an excellent option for companies that offer mass-market mobile applications and are looking for ways to easily accept payments.

This service is open to customers of Maroc Telecom without having to hold a bank account and its activation takes place in Maroc Telecom agencies upon presentation of the national identity card.

Through its innovative platform, people can now leave their cash behind and safely. However the question of how subscribers can be assured that their money will not be siphoned from their accounts has however, not been fully addressed and many people are still skeptical about the security of mobile commerce.

Maroc-Telecom, of which the French group Vivendi holds 51% shares, employs more than 11,000 people.

Maroc-Telecom, Meditel and Maroc Connect are the three telephone companies currently operating in Morocco. http://www.africanews.com/site/First_money_transfer_service_for_Morocco/list_messages/29314
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Over 8.3 million tourists visit Morocco in 2009.
15/01/2010

The number of tourists that visited Morocco in 2009 reached 8.35 million, registering an increase of 6% relative to 2008, the newly appointed Tourism Minister, Yassir Znagui, said on Thursday. However, in spite of this increase in the number of tourists, tourism revenues stood at MAD 52.4 billion (about USD 6.7 billion), dropping 5.7% compared to the previous year, said Znagui at the opening session of the third Moroccan Travel Market held in Marrakech.

“The tourist sector has showed resilience through realizing a more than honorable performance in such a year as 2009, marked by a difficult economic context," the minister boasted.

He also pointed out that the sector, accounting for 9% of GDP and employing over 420,000 people, attracted investments of MAD 10.8 billion, which are expected to create up to 8,840 more job opportunities.

Speaking about last year's achievements, Znagui added that 13,000 new beds were created, 40% of them in the red city of Marrakech.

“These results are the fruit of cooperation between the public and the private sectors, as well as good anticipation and innovation capacity,” stressed the Moroccan minister, adding that they also show that the right strategic choices have been made.

According to organizers, the Moroccan travel Market, to continue till January 17, is expected to receive up to 13,000 national and international professional visitors and decision makers.

The Market, whose program features business meetings and thematic conferences, mainly aims to be a platform for the development of the sector in Morocco.

Last year, Morocco's king, Mohammed VI, had called on the government to prepare a new tourist vision for the year 2020, building on the achievement of the ‘2010 Vision'.

“Before the end of the year, the government should therefore seek to develop a tourist vision for the future, up to the year 2020,” the king had said in a message to the participants in the ninth National Tourism Forum, held in the Mediterranean town of Saidia.

The new vision “must be both flexible and sustainable and should take into account international tourism trends, the challenges of globalization and likely developments in the world economy,” he had specified.
http://www.moroccobusinessnews.com/Content/Article.asp?idr=18&id=1340
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Morocco targets 10 pct tourism growth in 2010.By Tom Pfeiffer
MARRAKESH, Morocco, Jan 16 (Reuters)

Morocco aims to draw 10 percent more visitors this year to help fill fast-growing hotel capacity and bolster tourism income after it slipped in 2009, industry and government officials said. Heavy investment in hotels, resorts and holiday apartments has helped the north African country more than double tourism earnings in the past decade -- providing a lifeline for a government battling widespread poverty.
The number of arrivals kept growing last year despite the global economic downturn, with an increase of 6 percent, but income fell as tourists spent less.

"We aim to realise growth of 10 percent (in 2010 tourism numbers), or three times the world trend that is forecast," newly-appointed Tourism Minister Yassir Znagui said in a speech on the first day of industry event the Moroccan Travel Market. Industry officials said the rise in tourist numbers hoped for this year would not come at the expense of profitability.

Last year visitor arrivals grew to 8.35 million while rival markets such as Spain and Tunisia fell, according to government figures. But industry estimates show the number of hotel stays fell 1.6 percent and tourism income slid 5.7 percent to 52.4 billion dirhams ($6.67 billion).
"I think in 2010 we can achieve 6 percent growth in foreign currency earnings and get back to the level we were at in 2008," Othman Cherif Alami, Chairman of Morocco's National Tourism Federation (FNT), told Reuters.

Morocco's tourism sector hopes new seaside resorts opening their doors, travel operators offering a wider choice of Moroccan holidays and budget airlines adding cheap flights from Europe, will boost earnings per tourist."We have a strong desire to gear Morocco towards sustainable tourism, respect for the environment and a top quality tourism product," tourism minister Znagui told Reuters. "That does not imply a drop in profitability."

RESORTS RE-LAUNCH
Delegates in Marrakesh said they saw the Jan. 4 nomination of Znagui, previously a City of London financier, as proof of the government's determination to relaunch big resort developments put on hold when the financial crisis struck. The government was forced to scale back its ambitions for Plan Azur, a chain of new holiday resorts along the country's Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines paid for mostly by investors from the Arabian Gulf, Europe and North America.

Industry officials said two of the resorts -- Mogador near the southern port of Essaouira and Lixus near Larache in the north -- should open in July and at the end of the year respectively. Another two that were delayed when investors backed away -- Taghazout near Agadir and Plage Blanche in the far south -- could also be viable again before long, they said. Plage Blanche, victim of the insolvency of Spanish property developer Fadesa, seems to have been revived in part by an unnamed Egyptian investor, delegates said.

Taghazout has seen two investors, including U.S.-based Colony Capital back off, raising questions over whether it might ever happen.
"I am sure the new minister will re-launch calls for candidates (to complete) Taghazout," said Alami of the FNT. "It is the first site he visited 48 hours after he was nominated. I think that shows a strategy to relaunch investments." (Editing by Patrick Graham) (For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/) ($1=7.856 Moroccan Dirham)
http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7708470&subject=economic&action=article
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Marvelous Morocco.
By RALPH J. BELLANTONI • CORRESPONDENT • January 8, 2010

Life partners Frank Magalhaes and Rita Z. Asch embarked on a 2,500-mile journey through exotic Morocco in the fall of 2008. Now they will present the photographic riches culled from their adventures with an exhibit at Gallery 14 in Hopewell.
http://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20100108/ENTERTAINMENT03/100108050/Marvelous-Morocco
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