LATEST ECONOMIC BRIEFINGS
EMIRATES: ABU DHABI | 02.09.2010
Regulations enforcing higher capital standards in the UAE’s overcrowded insurance market have reduced the amount of insurance brokers, while slower growth in commercial business means the sector is looking to opportunities in the retail segment.
BAHRAIN | 30.08.2010
Bahrain is working hard to bolster its medical services, investing in new facilities and looking to increase the number of trained health professionals, though a rapidly growing population and an increase in lifestyle-related illnesses will continue to add to the demands placed on the nation’s health care resources.
BULGARIA | 30.08.2010
Prospective investors took note when it was announced in late July 2010 that Bulgaria’s largest steelmaker, Kremikovtzi, will be up for sale in mid-September 2010. The news comes four months after the company went into liquidation and a year after major creditors refused to approve a rescue plan for the ailing company.
EGYPT | 30.08.2010
The Egyptian Exchange 30 (EGX30), Cairo’s main stock market index, has had something of a volatile year in 2010, as it rallied through the first quarter, declined through much of the second and began to stage a moderate recovery in the third.
KUWAIT | 30.08.2010
Despite its relatively small population, Kuwait is firmly placed among the world’s most attractive and popular markets for international retail franchises. With a strong consumer and shopping culture and a young, growing and affluent population with an affinity for international brands, Kuwait offers an attractive market for leading retailers seeking to expand their footprint.
COUNTRY COVERAGE
Strategies & Initiatives
Morocco, Volume 66
30.05.2005
30.05.2005
Mid-May's unanimous decision by the World Bank to begin a new four-year Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) with Morocco was welcomed by Rabat, which shares the Bank's goals of more growth and less unemployment.
The new CAS provides for economic aid of up to $300m per year from 2005 to 2009, in addition to World Bank technical and knowledge transfer activity. According to a press release on May 25, the money will be used with four aims in mind: to accelerate economic growth and employment opportunities, reduce poverty, improve education, and address ongoing water-related issues.
A statement on the World Bank web site relating to the new CAS notes, "The main difference between this CAS period and the previous one (2001-2004), is the more favourable political, and bureaucratic environment within which to implement institutional reforms. A greater sense of urgency prevails, and this has generated political will at the top levels of leadership, as well as within civil society."
The World Bank board also applauded King Mohamed VI's new Human Development Initiative, which he announced on May 19. The initiative, which is expected to cost around Dh1bn ($114m) a year, in fact shares many of the same aims as the CAS and aims to help eradicate poverty in the kingdom as well as tackle unemployment.
With unemployment still rife, (estimated to be as high as 19.3% in urban areas in mid-2004), and a growing population, Morocco cannot afford to ignore the poor shanty towns that are considered by some analysts to be breeding grounds for religious extremism and terrorism. The initiative was announced two days after the second anniversary of the tragic suicide bombings in Casablanca that killed 45 people.
The initiative comes at an important time, given the pressure the textile sector, a traditional high employer, is under due to Chinese competition. Newspaper La Tribune reported that the EU only imported 20m cloth items in the first quarter of 2005 from Morocco, which is a 25m decrease on the same period the previous year. European imports of Chinese T-shirts alone, however, are up 187% for the first quarter of 2005.
Meanwhile, although the unemployment rate in rural areas is nowhere near as high as it is in the cities, agricultural also appears to be at risk. According to Agricultural Minister Mohand Laensar, the sector could be facing serious trouble, as there has been a 4% decrease in the area of sowed land for growing wheat over the past year. The output of cereal right now could stand as low as 36m quintals, which would be a 57% decrease on the 2004 season, adding yet another burden to the unemployment rate.
In an attempt to counter these burgeoning unemployment problems, Minister of Industry, Trade and Economy Salaheddine Mezouar announced May 25 that a new government strategy relating to industry in particular would generate as many as 440,000 jobs by the year 2015. The scheme is expected to focus on expanding areas such as off shoring, electronics, the food industry and handicrafts.
Those reforms so far implemented also seem to be having a positive effect on the economy as a whole, as an annual report published jointly by the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), predicted that economic growth should stay above 3% for the next two years.
Thus issues such as poverty and unemployment are certainly beginning to be addressed. Through ongoing liberalisation efforts, the coupling of the King's Human Development Initiative and now the new World Bank CAS, a foundation seems to be in place for Morocco to tackle some of its most troubling social and economic issues and, many hope, make way for sustained growth.
The new CAS provides for economic aid of up to $300m per year from 2005 to 2009, in addition to World Bank technical and knowledge transfer activity. According to a press release on May 25, the money will be used with four aims in mind: to accelerate economic growth and employment opportunities, reduce poverty, improve education, and address ongoing water-related issues.
A statement on the World Bank web site relating to the new CAS notes, "The main difference between this CAS period and the previous one (2001-2004), is the more favourable political, and bureaucratic environment within which to implement institutional reforms. A greater sense of urgency prevails, and this has generated political will at the top levels of leadership, as well as within civil society."
The World Bank board also applauded King Mohamed VI's new Human Development Initiative, which he announced on May 19. The initiative, which is expected to cost around Dh1bn ($114m) a year, in fact shares many of the same aims as the CAS and aims to help eradicate poverty in the kingdom as well as tackle unemployment.
With unemployment still rife, (estimated to be as high as 19.3% in urban areas in mid-2004), and a growing population, Morocco cannot afford to ignore the poor shanty towns that are considered by some analysts to be breeding grounds for religious extremism and terrorism. The initiative was announced two days after the second anniversary of the tragic suicide bombings in Casablanca that killed 45 people.
The initiative comes at an important time, given the pressure the textile sector, a traditional high employer, is under due to Chinese competition. Newspaper La Tribune reported that the EU only imported 20m cloth items in the first quarter of 2005 from Morocco, which is a 25m decrease on the same period the previous year. European imports of Chinese T-shirts alone, however, are up 187% for the first quarter of 2005.
Meanwhile, although the unemployment rate in rural areas is nowhere near as high as it is in the cities, agricultural also appears to be at risk. According to Agricultural Minister Mohand Laensar, the sector could be facing serious trouble, as there has been a 4% decrease in the area of sowed land for growing wheat over the past year. The output of cereal right now could stand as low as 36m quintals, which would be a 57% decrease on the 2004 season, adding yet another burden to the unemployment rate.
In an attempt to counter these burgeoning unemployment problems, Minister of Industry, Trade and Economy Salaheddine Mezouar announced May 25 that a new government strategy relating to industry in particular would generate as many as 440,000 jobs by the year 2015. The scheme is expected to focus on expanding areas such as off shoring, electronics, the food industry and handicrafts.
Those reforms so far implemented also seem to be having a positive effect on the economy as a whole, as an annual report published jointly by the Development Centre of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB), predicted that economic growth should stay above 3% for the next two years.
Thus issues such as poverty and unemployment are certainly beginning to be addressed. Through ongoing liberalisation efforts, the coupling of the King's Human Development Initiative and now the new World Bank CAS, a foundation seems to be in place for Morocco to tackle some of its most troubling social and economic issues and, many hope, make way for sustained growth.
