November 2000

Morocco Update Memo

The following report outlines new developments in the past three months and the state of on-going developments.

1. Introduction and Summary

Although no serious regulatory projects were undertaken during the quarter, several complementary initiatives concerning education and communication can be noted. The privatisation of Maroc Telecom is also in the final stages.

2. Information Society Policy

2.1 Historical overview and general legislation

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.2 Umbrella Policies and national IS strategy

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.3 IS Application Areas

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.4 Government and administration (national, regional, local)

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.5 Telecommunications and Internet

Interconnection and Tariff policies

Below, we can compare the prices (in DH per month inc. Tax) between the two GSM operators:

Maroc Telecom has also released 4 new internet tariffs with 3 hours a month being 90DH/TTC, 10 hours 156DH/TTC, 20 hours 246DH/TTC and 30 hours (reserved mainly for professionals) being 336DH/TTC. Each additional hour is charged at 22DH/HT. All of these packs are subject to minimum sign-up of 12 months.

To connect to the Internet IAM are charging 850DH/TTC but a subscription to RTC Internet is charged at 1200DH/TTC. In comparison to the latter Wanadoo are charging 1188DH/TTC, add to this the cost of communication and it works out to be about 0.96DH/TTC for 3 minutes or 19.2DH/TTC per hour.

Regarding WAP Internet services, communication is charged at national GSM rate which is currently 0.80DH HT (HT= before Tax) for 24 seconds peak time and half this during off-peak hours.

2.6 Electronic Commerce

New propositions for the expansion of e-commerce in Morocco have been presented by the group "Projet pilote et promotion du commerce éléctronique" (preliminary project and promotion of electronic commerce), group composed of representatives from the public and private sectors. The main ideas are based on the following;

• development of the infrastructure of the Internet and the rate of computer equipment
• training
• information
• confidence

2.7 Education and research

The National Centre of Documentation, which detains an important amount of economic and social information, is to list the entirety of its bibliographies on the web by October.

The first virtual university Euro-Mediterranean on the web , "Méditéranéenne Thetys", has just been created in collaboration with the European Union. Its aim is to promote learning in fields that are considered particularly important in the Mediterranean area such as Health, Environment, High Technologies, Economics, Economics and Law .The 5 Moroccan universities that have joined the project are the universities of Cadi Ayad, Chouaib Doukkali, Mohamed 5^th and Mohamed 1^st.

The network Marwan (Wide Area Network), which had been initiated in 1997 and the aim of which was to federate the infrastructure of no less than 600 schools and to connect them to search engines such as the British engine JANET, the French RENATIER, the Canadian RISQ or the Swiss SWITCH. A budget of 14 million dirhams was initially awarded to the firm Intel/Interdata to develop the project. The project has not yet begun due to administrative concerns.

Many private schools are now on the web. Their web sites contain information on the courses they offer and also occasionally an online subscription.

The Ministry of Education (MEN) is now collaborating with the group VIVENDI in running a project, the aim of which is to computerise national schools (promoting off-line and on-line cultural tools).

2.8 Transport

Several radio communications licences are up for sale from the ANRT destined for companies whose employees are always on the move (haulage, ambulance, courier). A questionnaire is also being given out to understand what companies think of these licences.

2.9 Health care

Saydalia.com is a site for professionals in the pharmacy sector: information, logistics, sale of medicine and more is to be found on line. More curious individuals can also be given some medical advice as well as practical services.

2.10 Labour

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.11 Competition

Wannadoo (a branch of France Telecom) filed a complaint to the ANRT, in early September, denouncing the anti-competitiveness of their direct competitor, Maroc Telecom.

2.12 Access for all

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.13 Copyright, intellectual property rights

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.14 Public access to data

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.15 Privacy, data protection, consumer protection

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.16 Security

There has been no change during the last quarter.

2.17 Freedom of expression and information as far as the distribution via electronic networks is concerned

There has been no change during the last quarter.

3. Institutions and organisations in charge of IS regulation

3.1 Ministries

There has been no change during the last quarter.

3.2 National regulatory authorities

The SEPTI created this fall a National Commission on Electronic Commerce. The commission is charged with preparing the laws and decrees that will provide the legal framework for electronic commerce in Morocco. The commission will publish a precise calendar for this framework no later than next June.

3.3 Office for the protection of economic competition

There has been no change during the last quarter.

3.4 Consultative councils

There has been no change during the last quarter.

3.5 Bodies in charge of RTD policy

There has been no change during the last quarter.

3.6 Organisations in charge of the promotion of the IS

There has been no change during the last quarter.

4. International relationships and agreements

There has been no change during the last quarter.

5. Market: Privatisation, foreign investment, mergers, acquisitions, call for tenders…

Privatisation of Maroc Telecom is continuing with the help of the consortium led by J.P. MORGAN and the BCP. Among the operators that will be bidding for the 25 to 35 percent of the capital of Maroc Telecom next June are SBC Communications, Telecom Italia Mobile, France telecom, and Vivendi. Experts can expect that the winning bid will be in the range of four to five billion dollars.

The minister of industry, commerce and craftsmen (MICA), SEPTI and the finance minister have resurfaced the idea of a technoparc (project P@rc) and two sites have been suggested. Technoparc’s objective is to create a space where the information technology operators of different sizes can get together to develop the right conditions for mastering technology.

6. Standards

There has been no change during the last quarter.