VZCZCXRO5032
RR RUEHLMC
DE RUEHRB #1266/01 1801710
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291710Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4164
INFO RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA 1853
RUEHAS/AMEMBASSY ALGIERS 4052
RUEHTU/AMEMBASSY TUNIS 8940
RUEHNK/AMEMBASSY NOUAKCHOTT 3217
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 4266
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 1472
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 5546
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 2999
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
RUEAORC/USCBP WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHLMC/MILLENNIUM CHALLENGE CORPORATION WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RABAT 001266 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR NEA/MAG, NEA/OFI AND INL/AAE 
DEPT ALSO FOR EB/TPP, EB/IFD AND DRL/IL 
STATE PASS USTR FOR DOUG BELL 
STATE PASS USAID FOR JENNIFER RAGLAND 
USDOC ITA/MAC/ANESA FOR NATE MASON 
USDOC FOR FSC/OIO AND CLDP 
USDOL FOR ILAB 
PARIS FOR ZEYA 
LONDON FOR TSOU 
ROME FOR ROSE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD EAIR EINV SOCI MO
SUBJECT: MOROCCO ECONOMIC HIGHLIGHTS 
 
--------------------------------- 
More Trade with Maghreb Neighbors 
--------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Moroccan trade with its Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) 
partners - Algeria, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia - reached 
$686 million in 2005, nearly double the previous year but 
still only a fraction of Morocco's total trade.  Moroccan 
imports from the AMU totaled $550 million, up from $330 
million in 2004, while exports during the last three years 
have averaged $130 million annually.  Almost half of the 
imports were petroleum products.  Moroccan trade with AMU 
countries amounts to only two percent of the country's 
foreign trade. 
 
---------------------- 
Privatization Proceeds 
---------------------- 
 
¶2.  Twenty-five companies, seven of them Chinese, have shown 
interest in buying the state-owned Moroccan Tea and Sugar 
Company (Somathes).  In May the Ministry of Finance launched 
a tender to cede the government's share of Somathes, setting 
a minimum bidding price of $51 million.  The deadline for 
bids is July 16.  The sale of Somathes is part of a GOM 
privatization drive launched in the 1990s.  Through the end 
of 2005, 70 entities (44 companies and 26 hotels) had been 
totally or partially sold off, earning the state around 
eight billion dollars.  Eighty percent of the proceeds came 
from foreign investors - three quarters of them French. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
On-Line Trading Hits the Casablanca Board 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  On-line trading was introduced into Morocco on June 14, 
making Morocco the only country in the Arab world to use 
such a system.  Customers of www.DarTawfir.ma - which means 
"House of Saving" in Arabic - can manage their investment 
accounts on the Casablanca exchange in real-time without 
intermediaries. 
 
-------------------------------- 
More Low-Cost Flights to Morocco 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair has signed a five-year 
agreement with the GOM after six months of negotiations, 
bringing more competition on flights between Europe and 
Morocco.  The agreement includes a commitment by Ryanair to 
establish up to 20 routes, carrying one million passengers 
per year within three years.  Ryanair's chief rival, British 
airline easyJet, will begin flights to Marrakech in July. 
Attracting low-cost airlines is part of the GOM's ambitious 
"Vision 2010" strategy to attract ten million tourists per 
year by 2010. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
500,000 Year-old Human Remains Found in Casablanca 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶5.  A human fossil remain of an upper premolar tooth has 
been discovered in a quarry site in Casablanca.  The human 
fossil is associated with other remains dating back at least 
 
RABAT 00001266  002 OF 002 
 
 
500,000 years, according to a statement by the Ministry of 
Culture.  The same site had previously yielded a Homos 
Erectus lower jaw in 1969.  The discovery was made by a 
Moroccan-French team composed of members of the Moroccan 
Institute of Science and Archaeology (INSAP) and France's 
Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). 
 
RILEY