Question

Analyse the service sector in international trade of Morocco

Answer 1

Thanks to the richness of Morocco's soil, the agricultural sector is dominant, employing almost half of the active population and contributing around 20% to the GDP. Grains, fruits and vegetables are the country's main crops. Economic growth relies excessively on this sector.

Morocco has little by way of mineral resources; phosphates being its main wealth. Industry contributes around one-third of the GDP, thanks to the textiles, leather goods, food processing, oil refining and electronic assembling sectors. New industry areas are nevertheless booming as well and thus trying to diminish the kingdom's dependence on its agricultural sector: the chemical, automotive, computer, electronics nad aeronautic industry.

The tertiary sector contributes around 50% of the GDP and depends exclusively on tourism, which remains very dynamic despite the economic slowdown brought about by the attacks of September 11, 2001 and those of May 2003 in Casablanca. Other than granting concessions for a lot of public services in the major towns, the country recently liberalized oil and gas exploration regulations. Calls for tender procedures have become increasingly transparent.

Services, including government and military expenditures, account for about one-fourth of Morocco's GDP. Government spending accounts for fully half of the service economy, despite an ongoing effort on the part of the government to sell much of its assets to private concerns. Since the mid-1980s tourism and associated services have been an increasingly significant sector of the Moroccan economy and by the late 1990s had become Morocco's largest source of foreign currency.

During that time the Moroccan government committed significant resources — by way of loans and tax exemptions — to the development of the tourist industry and associated services. The government also made direct capital investments in the development of the service sector, but since the early 1990s it has begun to divest itself of these properties. Several million visitors enter Morocco yearly, most of them from Europe. Tourists also arrive from Algeria, the United States, and East Asia, mainly Japan.

Tourism

Morocco is a major touristic destination. Tourism is thus a major contributor to both the economic output and the current account balance, as well as a main job provider. In 2008 8 million tourists have visited the kingdom. Tourist receipts in 2007 totalled US$7,55 billion. Morocco has developed an ambitious strategy, dubbed "Vision 2010", aimed at attracting 10 million tourists by 2010. This strategy provides for creating 160,000 beds, thus bringing the national capacity to 230,000 beds. It also aims to create some 600,000 new jobs.

Marrakech continues to be the market leader, but the case of Fez, showing a 20% increase of visitors in 2004, gives hope that better organisation can bring results in diversifying the sector as a whole. Like other regions, Fez has its Center Regional du Tourisme (CRT), a local tourism body which coordinates the local industry and the authorities. Fez's plan involves a substantial restructuring of the old city and an upgrading of hotel capacity. Improved transport has brought the city into more direct contact with potential visitors. There are now direct flights from France, where previously it was necessary to change plane in Casablanca.

The "Plan Azur", is a large-scale project initiated by king Mohammed VI, is meant to internationalise Morocco. The plan provides for creating six coastal resorts for holiday-home owners and tourists: five on the Atlantic coast and one on the Mediterranean. The plan also includes other large-scale development projects such as upgrading regional airports to attract budget airlines, and building new train and road links.

Thus, Morocco achieved an 11% rise in tourism in the first five months of 2008 compared with the same period last year, it said, adding that French visitors topped the list with 927,000 followed by Spaniards (587,000) and Britons (141,000). Morocco, which is close to Europe, has a mix of culture and the exotic that makes it popular with Europeans buying holiday homes.

Information Technology[edit]

The IT sector generated a turnover of Dh7 billion ($910,000m) in 2007, which represented an 11% increase compared to 2006. The number of Moroccan internet subscribers in 2007 amounted to 526,080, representing an increase of 31.6% compared to the previous year and a 100% increase compared to 2005. The national penetration for internet subscription remains low, even though it increased from 0.38% in 2004 to 1.72% in 2007. Yet over 90% of subscribers have a broadband ADSL connection, which is one of the highest ratios in the world. The future of the Moroccan IT sector was laid out in Maroc 2006–12. The plan aims to increase the combined value of the telecoms and IT sector from Dh24 billion ($3.1 billion) in 2004 to Dh60 billion ($7.8 billion) in 2012.

While the telecoms sector remains the big earner, with Dh33 billion ($4.3 billion), the IT and off shore industries should generate Dh21 billion ($2.7 billion) each by 2012. In addition, the number of employees should increase from 40,000 to 125,000. The government hopes that adding more local content to the internet will increase usage. There have also been efforts to add more computers to schools and universities. E-commerce is likely to take off in the next few years, especially as the use of credit cards is gaining more ground in Morocco. Although computer and internet use have made a great leap forward in the past five years, the IT market still finds itself in infancy and offers great potential for further development.