Itissalat Al Maghrib (IAM) provides an international hub link at 8Mbps to
the US, Italy and France. IAM administers the ‘.ma’ domain. It
provides special telephone access numbers to ISPs to enable countrywide access
at the cost of a local call.
IAM provides the international Internet hub for a large ISP sector. The
majority of the 160 service providers are located in Casablanca, Rabat, and
Tangier with others in Tetouan, Fes, Meknes, Marrakech, Oujda and Agadir.
Aside from the academic community and private sector, many of which have
full leased line Internet links, access is also provided by SDNP Morocco and
there is one store and forward service provider for NGOs - EndaMaghrebsupport@
endamag.gn.apc.org
IAM has assumed responsibility for the administration of the .ma TLD domain
and it also provides special telephone numbers (numero vert) to the ISPs. It
costs three times the cost of a local call to access the Internet from anywhere
in the country.
There are estimated 25 000 Internet users. The Morocco Internet Society
Chapter was the first to be established in Africa. With an active programme of
events, its large membership is probably the most representative of public
sector networking in the country. (najat@misoc.org.ma)
Cybercafes include: Groupe Open Casablanca, CasaNet Casablanca, Hotel
Sheraton Casablanca, ACDIM Rabat, WebCafé Rabat, Café
Multime-dia04 Marrakech, Marina Smir, Hotel Sheraton Fes, Agadir Avenue Hassan
II and Cybercafé MaMnet Tanger.
ISP charges range between 250 Dirhams and 500 Dirhams for a variety of
packages for web and e- mail access. Initial set-up costs range between 800-100
Dirhams.
AIM was launched in March 1998 and started off as an Internet provider based
in Meknes. It has five points of presence - in Fes, Casablanca, Rabat, Meknes
and Marrakech - connecting the national operator’s Internet backbone with
access speeds of 64kbps in the POPs outside Casablanca.
National networking policy and the use of information communication
technologies (ICTs) for the public and private sector is now the domain of the
Conseillier du Premier Ministre responsible for IT, Mr Ben Kamouna. Mr Kamouna
attended the Rabat PICTA formative meeting and is known to be very open to
collaboration. The Ministry of Education is also now taking a leading role in
networking among teaching institutions. Fourteen universities and higher
education institutes have been connected to the Internet via an X.25- Internet
gateway operated by the ISP MTDS in Rabat with support from USAID.
The Ministere de l’Education Nationale and the Ministere de
l’Enseignement Superieur, de la Recherche Scientifique et de la Formation
des Cadres are responsible for universities and other centres of higher
education.
The Prime Minister’s office, in conjunction with the Ministere
d’Enseignement Superieure et de la Recherche and the PTO, has established
a 2Mbps backbone for all nine provincial capitals. Access will be provided at
cost for the academic/research sector and schools.
The Centre national de documentation (CND) has a broad mandate covering many
areas relating to ICT policy in the country. It is attached to the Ministry of
Planning and is officially charged with establishing a science and technology
information network as well as collecting, processing and diffusing scientific
and technical information concerning the social and economic development of the
country. CND also provides guidance in the application of ICTs for government,
parastatal and public institutions and local collectives.
CND uses MINISIS to automate its documentation centre. It has developed a
multidisciplinary thesaurus in French (MAKNAZ) and a number of other databases
- MAALAMA, MUTUN and RACID. A regional and sectoral decentralisation programme
is in place at CND, which has seen 20 database access points in the seven
regions of the country.
The Université Mohammed V in Rabat hosts the Ecole Mohammadia
d’Ingenieurs (EMI), which is the RINAF focal point and one of the leading
net-working organisations in the country. (Director: Mohamed Ali Taoud)
Aside from scientific and technical research and network service provision,
EMI also provides continuing education courses and is also the focal point for
the regional Arab network - RAITNET.
The Department Information of Management has a software laboratory and a
networks and systems laboratory. EMI has accords with over 30 universities and
schools in Africa, Europe and North America, and is the local partner in many
projects supported by international development agencies. EMI also has
contracts to assist in informatics and network development from many government
departments. EMI is a contributor to La Francophonie’s ICT Breves news
service
The school has been developing a scientific research network called Chabaka
du Maghrib (CHAMA), which is also aimed at engaging expatriate Moroccan
researchers. The network links the Ecole des Sciences de l’Information
(ESI), Rectorat de l’Université Mohamed V, Centre national de
coordination et de planification de la recherche scientifique and the Institut
national de la recherche agronomique (INRA). This was initially seen as the
first stage of a dedicated science and technology information network; however
,with the advent of the national high speed Internet backbone, it is likely
that institutions will now connect directly to it instead.
The general use of Arabic in the country has limited the take-up of ICTs.
One of the measures being taken to address this is the establishment of a
regional information network in Arabic in collaboration with the countries of
the League of Arab States.
The Ministry of Environmental Affairs hosts the national SDNP with support
from UNDP and broad participation from UNFPA, the Federation of Chambers of
Commerce and Industry, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Public
Works, the PTO, Ministry of Public Health, Centre national de documentation
(CND), Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Centre for Remote Sensing
(CRTS). SDNP Morocco has also established a comprehensive web server, provides
e-mail access and holds regular training and sensitisation sessions. Contact:
Najat Rochdi najat@sdnhq.undp.org.
The Ecole des Sciences de l’Information (ESI) has an extensive ICT
training programme, which attracts a number of students from other countries in
the region, as well as a large documentation centre. It also has links with
schools of information science at universities in Pittsburg, Montréal
and Sheffield, UK.
The Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Informatique et d’Analyse des
Systemes (ENSIAS) in Rabat held a workshop in 1997 on new technologies of
databases, the web and data warehousing with assistance from INRIA, which is
also assisting ENSIAS with a more general plan to train the trainers in
informatics. Contact: Faranak.Grange@inria.fr.
The University Ibnou Zhor de Agadir is the Las Palmas Chair focal point for
establishment of a system for improving access to scientific documentation, in
collaboration with the Polytechnical University for Valencia, Spain.
The Ecole Nationale de l’Industrie Minerale (ENIM) in Agdal has an
Informatics department, which provides training for systems engineers,
information centre management, database and network administration and
applications development.
The Ecole Superieure de Technologie de Casablanca (ESTC) provides training
in Informatics in corporate management. The Institut National des Postes et
Telecommunications (INPT), Rabat, is well known for its telecom and IT
programmes. The Université des Sciences de Rabat has established a
research project on telecommunications and multimedia with support from INPT
and INRIA.
The Université de Marrakech has an informatics research project in
collaboration with INRIA.
The Institut National de Statistique et d’E-conomie Appliquee (INSEA)
provides training in information analysis.
The Royal Centre for Remote Sensing (CRTS) is responsible for the
distribution of satellite images in the Kingdom. Contact: crts@mtds.com.
The Centre conducts training courses and has contracts with a number of
satellite image distributors including Spot Image in France for spot data and
Eurimage in Italy for LANDSAT, NOAA, ERS and IRS data, etc. CRTS is also
responsible for centralising the national archives of satellite data and data
from projects using spaceborne remote sensing. CRTS is coordinating Moroccan
efforts to set up the Cooperation Information Network (COPINE) project launched
by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. Morocco has also
established the Regional Centre for Space Science and Technology Education at
EMI.
The National Centre for Agricultural Documentation has developed two
databases - AGRIDOC and RETRODOC. ACCT’s BIEF partners in Morocco are: the
Centre africain de formation et de recherche administratives pour le
développement (CAFRAD), Université Mohammed V, CND and the
Fondation du Roi Abdul-Aziz Al Saoud pour les études islamiques et les
sciences humaines.
A Centre Syfed has been established by AUPELF-UREF in Rabat providing free
access to the public sector. Contact el-hadi.addahbi@aupelf.refer.org.
ORSTOM/RIO has installed a node at EMI and another ORSTOM/RIO node has been
set up at the Institut national de recherche agronomique (INRA).
The UNECA’s North Africa Subregional Development centre is located in
Tangiers. One of its objectives is to facilitate networking and information
exchange by providing for public sector, civil society and private sector
development partners to interact at the regional level and share experiences.
Contact srdc@cybermania.net.ma
A law concerning intellectual property and copyright is currently before the
Moroccan parliament. The Minister of Communication and the Minister of Commerce
and Industry, along with the Office of the Secretary of Technology and
Information, are organising awareness activities for industrial property.
Electronic commerce is not yet equipped with a statutory framework in
Morocco. However, Morocco recognises the law concerning electronic commerce
voted by the CNUDCI regulating the use of data encrypting.
The management of the “information society” programme was given by
the government to the SEPTI (Office of the Secretary of New Information
Technologies), whose principal objectives are:
- The emergence of an economy based on knowledge and innovation;
- The empowerment of human resources;
- The development of infrastructures; and
- The standardisation of information technologies.
Prior to 1996, Morocco used to have various investment codes for exports,
tourism, industrial, mining, maritime, handicraft and real estate investments.
These codes were cancelled from 1 January 1996. Morocco has, however,
adopted an investment charter which sets up the main objectives regarding the
promotion and development of investments in Morocco within the next 10 years.
The charter's main objectives are to improve the tax environment,
review the tax incentives and set up new incentives for investments. More
specifically, these objectives consist of the following:
- Reducing the tax burden relating to the acquisition of equipment;
- Reducing the income tax rates;
- Offering tax incentives to promote regional development;
- Promoting offshore and free-trade zones; and
- Apportioning more equitably the tax charges among taxpayers.
Moreover, the income tax incentives regarding exports, industrial and
handicraft investments have been maintained through their inclusion in the
corporate tax law in 1996.
For more information on business incentives see
www.mbendi.com/ernstyl/cymoeyip.htm.
