Telecom
Telecom Firms
in Morocco Bullish on ADSL Business, See Booming Demand in ‘05
ADSL subscriptions in Morocco are growing fast although only a tiny
percent of the population is benefiting from Internet access. Subscriptions
to the Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line service, which gets 8 megabits
of data per second on a downstream phone line and 1 megabyte per second
on the upstream, jumped from 2,500 in December 2003 to 42,000 in September
30, 2004, according to Maroc Telecom’s figures.
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Economy
Ramadan in Algeria:
Declining Economic Activity But Massive Rise in Household Spending
The holly month of Ramadan brings a different set of economic rules,
challenging the traditional ones of supply and demand. Despite intense
consumer activity, businesses tend to go dormant for a whole month,
with the exception of food-related entities where speculation on prices
run high. In the food sector, prices have skyrocketed this month, as
it was in the past, despite well-supplied markets and an abundance of
products available to households.
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Media Market
TV Viewing in
Ramadan and the Increase of the Cost of Advertisement in Morocco
Media specialists do no agree as to whether Moroccan households are
saturated with TV commercials. There is however a consensus among them
that the time and cost of TV ads during the month of Ramadan’s
prime time, which is from 6:00 PM to a little after 7:00 PM have reached
record highs. This year, for each 26-minute sitcom during prime time,
commercials consume a whole 13 minutes. They say the share of commercials
in Ramadan programs is still below Western standards where it averages
15 minutes in Europe, for instance. After the break of the fast, known
as the Ftour, commercials amount to between 16 and 18 minutes per hour.
Excluding the month of Ramadan and comparing Morocco’s TVM with
France’s TF1, the latter broadcasts 144 minutes of commercials
in a 24-hour period, against TVM’s 55 minutes.
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Commerce
Algiers Launches
Offensive Against Informal Markets, To Reorganize Distribution Sector
The department of competition and prices (DCP) of the city of Algiers
has strengthened its aggressive stance against the informal sector.
The department new strategy is to eliminate illegal markets by establishing
new legal ones that would compete to reduce the impact the former have
had on consumers, the economy and the environment. Essentially a dozen
new markets will be established in the remaining months of this year
and in 2005. Some 10 municipalities have been selected to host those
markets and the technical documents, including their architectural layouts
have already been established.
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Agriculture
Morocco to Launch
a Large-Scale Destoning Program, Releases Data on 2004 Forest Fires
The Moroccan government announced that it will fund fully or partly
a major destoning program aimed at transforming some 40,000 hectares
of land (about 99,000) into arable land. This massive undertaking will
take place in 16 provinces. The government is currently looking at the
ways to gather the proper financial package to fund this project, which
is expected to last two years.
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Economy
Record Foreign
Currency Reserves in Algeria Expected, Maintains Trade Surplus
Algeria’s foreign currency reserves are expected to reach the $40
billion mark by the end of this year. As of September 30, 2004, the
stock of foreign currency held by Algeria exceeded $37 billion.
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Trade/Relations