Trade and Globalization:
Moroccan Industries
Facing Globalization
The
establishment of a free-trade zone between Morocco and the European Union
is what is in the mind of many Moroccan industrialists. For some, the
agreement will open new opportunities for them in Europe. For others,
it is a source of worries and major potential problems as trade barriers
are removed and goods and products from Europe will ultimately enter Morocco
without any obstacle.
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Markets:
Sizing the Informal
Sector in Algeria
A
report from the independent Algerian think tank CNES shows the existence
of major weaknesses in the nation's economy. Among the biggest threats
to the economy, the informal sector appears on the top of the list.
Black market activity has expended at a rate qualified by the authors
as spectacular and exponential. But the authors also put the growth
of the informal sector into context, arguing that a vast pool of unemployed,
poor and excluded from the education system has been the primary factor
driving the growth of informal economic activity.
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Trends:
Slowing Down French
Relocation of Call Centers to the Maghreb
French
call centers have been moving their operations abroad, a move that is
now source of resistance in government and public opinion at large.
The preferred destinations of the relocated call centers have been Maghreb
countries and also Senegal where there is an abundance of qualified
operators who have managed to adopt linguistic skills that make it difficult
to identify their foreign origin. French call centers in countries like
Tunisia and Morocco hire skilled students who make outbound calls to
France and attempt to sell products and services. Call center employees
use borrowed European names to facilitate contacts with potential clients
in France. This trend is not specific to French businesses. It has been
more pronounced in the United States where call center businesses have
been moving at a very fast past to countries like India and the Philippines.
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Economic Relations:
Algeria-Japan:
Economic Recovery in Both Countries Could Lead to Better Ties
Algeria
and Japan are both emerging from difficult times and the future bodes
well for their bilateral and economic relations if both make the appropriate
steps to strengthen them. While Algeria’s financial profile has
made substantial strides, Japan is showing early signs of recovery after
many years of recession and a corporate world in transition. While the
dark years of the 1990s were a decade of a civil strife in Algeria,
Japan also had its share of trouble. With a deteriorating economy, unemployment
exceeded 5%, a rate that was unthinkable in previous periods when Japan
was considered an unstoppable economic engine worth of its ranking as
the second largest economy in the world. During the 1990s, the economic
growth in Japan was between 1% and 0.5%, further inhibited by sluggish
domestic consumption. But the latest indicators from Japan are showing
an improved economic picture there.
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The past months speculations and rumors in Rabat over
a cabinet reshuffle created a sense of moroseness and frustration
among the various interest groups. Fear of inaction from an administration
whose ministers were not guaranteed a seat in the next cabinet added
to uncertainty over a potential economic recovery, and that is despite
the fact that a cabinet reshuffle would not have led to any major
policy shifts...
Transport Infrastructure: 