Monday, September 25, 2006

Morocco to create 5000 micro companies.

There has been some lateral thinking going on in Morocco. Confronted with poor, unemployed and handicapped people who need work and communication technology, the Minister of the Social Development, Family and Solidarity, Aberrahim Harouchi has come up with an innovative plan that addresses both needs.


On Saturday in Casablanca he launched the “LiajliCom” (for you) programme which provides for creation of 5,000 small companies providing moving "publiphones" on behalf of people living in precarious situations.


The details are still to be announced, but the idea seems to be to provide mobile, compact public phones - either on motor scooters or maybe even in backpacks - and take them where they are needed.

Resulting from a partnership agreement between the Ministry of Social Development, Telefonica Foundation, Ilaicom company and the General Confederation of Moroccan Companies (CGEM), this programme targets mainly the poorest 403 rural communes and 264 urban districts throughout the kingdom, as identified in the framework of the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH).

According to its promoters, the project, intended to fight exclusion and precariousness, represents a real social integration opportunity for thousands of poor, unemployed, and handicapped people, offering them a low-cost and income-generating production equipment.

It will also make it possible for people to improve their precarious income, underlined Harouchi, indicating that this project is part of the Employment Initiative launched recently by the government and which aims at the creation of 200,000 jobs by 2008.

The minister added that thanks to the GSM technology, these publiphones will allow linking thousands of ‘Douars' by connecting them to basic communication services, thus sparing the time and effort they waste while looking for a means of communication.

The creation of these micro-enterprises constitutes a true encouragement for the personal initiative, which is inline with the philosophy of the INDH, stressed the minister, concluding that from now on the beneficiaries will be able to become actors of their own development through the creation of income-generating activities.

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