Economy
Gross Domestic Products: US$50.1 billion (2004).
Main
exports
Clothing, fish, inorganic chemicals, transistors, fertilisers, petroleum
products, crude minerals, fruit and vegetables.
Main
imports
Crude petroleum, telecommunications and equipment, textile fabric,
gas and electricity, wheat, transistors and plastics.
Main
trade partners
Spain, France, United States of America and United Kingdom.
Agriculture employs 1-5th of the working population,
the principal crops include cereals, vegetables and citrus fruits,
and accounts for about 20% of Gross Domestic Products. Livestock
farming produces enough meat to comply with the domestic
needs. Fishing is vital to the domestic and the
export markets, as well as the revenue growing from the sale of
licences allowing foreign fleets to fish in Moroccan territorial
waters.
Mining is the country’s
principal industry and Morocco is the world’s largest exporter
of phosphate rock, both in raw and processed form
(including fertilisers), and this is the principal source of export
revenue. Morocco has substantial other mineral assets including
coal, iron ore, lead, zinc, cobalt, copper, manganese and silver.
Morocco has small reserves of oil and gas, but import's the bulk
of its needs.
The major components of the manufacturing sector are food
processing, textiles and the production
of leather goods.
The service sector, where tourism has grown rapidly
and is now worth almost US$2 billion yearly. The tourism industry
has benefited from Morocco having 1 of the best infrastructures
on the African continent and this is also a significant consideration
for foreign investors.
Remittances from Moroccan workers abroad (mainly in Europe) are
another major resource of revenue. During the last ten years, the
government has presented a series of IMF-sponsored reforms,
including trade liberalisation and public expenditure cuts in exchange
for successive assistance programmes. This has reduced the amount
to the public sector and helped towards easing Morocco’s huge
foreign debt but at the cost of enlarged unemployment with almost
half the workforce officially unemployed. A trade agreement with
the European Union was signed during 1995 under which all tariff
barriers will be removed by 2012.
Morocco is also part of a planned Free Trade Zone
(including Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan) which will offer privileged
access to European Union markets. The Moroccan government formed
a free trade agreement with the United States in 2004. Ultimately,
Morocco is now the largest single recipient of aid from the European
Union. Morocco is also a member of the Islamic Development
Bank, the African Development Bank, and
a founder member of the Union of the Arab Maghreb.
During 2004, Gross Domestic Product growth reached 3.5%.
Business Etiquette
Businesspeople should be of a smart appearance, however a suit is
not necessary in the very hot weather. Appointments must always
be made in advance.
Negotiations often involve a great deal of bargaining and a visitor
should expect to deal with numerous people in the process.
Office hours
Government offices
Monday to Thursday 8.30 am to 12.00 pm, 2.30 pm to 6.30 pm and Friday
8.30 am to 11.00 am and 3.00 pm to 6.30 pm.
Commercial
offices Monday to Thursday 8.30 am to 12.00 pm, 2.30 pm
to 6.30 pm and Friday 8.30 am to 11.00 am and 3.00 pm to 6.30 pm.
Commercial Information
Fédération des Chambres
de Commerce et d’Industrie du Maroc
6 rue d’Erfoud
BP 218
Hassan-Rabat
Morocco
Telephone number: (37) 767 881
or 051.
E-mail: fccism@ccis.ma
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