Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero's advance notice to Morocco about his visit to the Spanish enclaves of Sebta and Melilla has angered the Spanish right-wing, including the presidents of the two occupied towns who belong to the right-wing Popular Party (PP).Sebta and Melilla have always been at the centre of conflict between Morocco and Spain. The Popular Party has already tried to use the problem of Sub-Saharans migration to destabilise the diplomatic relations between the two countries.
The right-wing Party has previously declared that Morocco is using the waves of Sub-Saharan would-be migrants to claim the integration of Sebta and Melilla into Morocco.
According to an opinion poll conducted by Madrid-based Real Elcano Strategic Studies Institute, 19 % of Spaniards are afraid that Morocco may attack their country in 2006.
About 68 % of the Spaniards believe that the rate of unemployment among Moroccan Muslims in Sebta and Melilla would end up with Morocco demanding the integration of the two enclaves into its territory.
Moroccans living legally in Spain represent the first foreign community in the country. Their number stands at 473,048, according to Spanish official figures based on a recent census. Also, according to another report in the Morocco Times, quoting the Spanish National Institute of Statistics, the majority of new-born babies from immigrants to Spain are from Moroccan women. Moroccan women residing in Spain gave birth to 13,016 babies in 2004. This represents 20% of new born babies from immigrant women, a rise of 19% compared to 2003.
Full story in the Morocco Times: Zapatero's advance notice to Morocco angers Spanish right wing
The first festival of Rai music will take place in Oujda, a city in eastern Morocco, where Rai is extremely popular with a cross-section of the population. The organisation of this festival aims at improving the economic sector of the city, but it should be a must for all lovers of Rai music.
Full story in the Morocco Times: Rai Festival in 2006
The Antwerp Guild of Diamonds and Precious Stones and the Moroccan Association of Jewellers and Gemmologists (AMGB) will hold the groups' first joint conference in Marrakesh, Morocco, on Feb. 2.
To be held at Marrakesh's Farah Hotel, the conference will target jewelers, gemologists and merchants from North African countries including Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, according to a release from the Antwerp guild. European countries such as France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain will send guest speakers to the conference, along with delegations of jewelers and merchants.
Sponsored by Antwerp-based HRD's Institute of Gemmology, the conference aims to fall within the framework of the exploration of the African continent by the Belgian diamond industry and the extension of the North African jewel trade.
Guild Chairman H.R.H. Prince Jean of Luxembourg and the President of AMGB are scheduled to open the conference. The program will also include expert speakers from the HRD Research Centre and from Belgian university centers on the handling and identification of diamond and colored stones; Diamond Trading Co. representatives, who will discuss the evolution of the international diamond market; a presentation from Rio Tinto on diamond production; the chairman of the French Jewellers' Association, who will address prospects for jewelers; and the curator of the Antwerp Diamond Museum, who will present on diamonds in the Mediterranean region.
A cultural program enabling attendees to visit local merchants will precede the conference. After the event, there will be a day devoted to technical workshops and commercial contacts for attendees.
Morocco's first low-cost private airline Jet4you is taking shape following the tie-up between three Moroccan private business groups and TUI AG. The development follows country's open skies deal with the EU to spur tourism growth. Recently, Morocco signed an open skies agreement with the EU, which will come into force in 2006, to promote tourism, as the country intensifies plans to double the number of tourists to 10 million by 2010, with a turnover of 10 billion US dollars.Jet4you, will start its operation in March next year, with two leased planes and envisages to expand its fleet by two aircraft each year to 10 jets in 2010. The Jet4you chairman, Jawad Ziyat, said that the airline projects to carry 160,000 passengers in the first year of its operation before reaching 900,000 in 2008 and 1.7 million passengers in 2010.
According to some sources it has an initial capital of 60 million Moroccan dirhams and officially owned by a newly created company named Aviation Investment Company (AIC). German TUI owns 40 percent in AIC and in Jet4you while Morocco's largest private bank Attijari Wafa and investment fund Investima, investment arm of Societe Generale Marocaine de Banques (SGMB), a French bank Societe Generale subsidiary, has 20 percent share each. Private businessmen Guy Marrache and Ahmed Benabbes Taarji, co-owner of Moroccan leisure conglomerate Holidays Services, own 20 percent stake in the airline together.
TUI representative Elie Bruyninckx said his group invested in Jet4you because it is encouraged by Morocco's policy to develop the tourism industry and open the air travel business for competition. "We are partners in such an operation because Morocco has a vision of the future and a potential of growth," he said.
Royal Air Maroc (RAM) has announced the creation of a joint venture airline in Gabon as part of a drive to expand in Africa. RAM has a 51 per cent share in Air Gabon International, while the government of Gabon owns 49 per cent. RAM, which wants to set up more joint-venture airlines in Africa, also has a majority stake in Air Senegal International. It aims to become a diversified group by 2012 with activities including low-cost airline Atlas Blue, hotels, a call centre, a maintenance facility and affiliate airlines in Africa.
King Mohammed VI has launched the construction of a 233 km-long highway that will link the southern city of Marrakech to the Atlantic city of Agadir, to cost MAD 7 billion.A report in the Maghreb Arabe Presse says the the new highway, to connect two of the most important tourist destinations in Morocco, will be carried out under a convention signed in June 2004, in which Hassan II Fund for Economic and Social Development committed to contribute MAD 1.5 billion (MAD 9.19 = USD1) to the capital of the Moroccan Highways Company (ADM).
The highway is part of a larger project aiming to link the north and south of Morocco through a network extending over a thousand kilometers from Tangier-Mediterranean port to Agadir. The totality of the highway network is due to be operational in 2009.
The annual volume of investment in highways construction has increased from MAD 600 million per year in the 90s to MAD 4 billion for the period from 2005/2010.
The national highway network totals 595 Km that are currently operational and 272 Km under construction, while the construction of 535Km is scheduled to start before the end of 2007.
On the other hand, the route linking Marrakech and Essaouira will see the construction of a double lane route under a convention signed on Tuesday. The project, to cost MAD 490Mn, will help highlight the tourism attractions of Essaouira, reduce road accidents and open up the Marrakech-Tensift-Al Haouz region.
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