Casablanca (MAP)- The government will grant Moroccan project holders living abroad a subsidy of 10% of the costs of
their projects, Deputy Minister in charge of the Moroccan community abroad, Mohammed Ameur, said on Tuesday.
A subsidy ranging between 1 million dirhams and 5 million dirhams will be allocated to the project holder who brings an
equity capital contribution in foreign currencies of 25% of the total capital, he said, adding that the project holder
can also benefit from bank credits at around 65% of the total investment.

The Moroccan official also revealed that a package of incentive measures have been taken to bring expatriates to invest
more in Morocco by setting up attractive promotion mechanisms, cutting fund transfer fees and providing administrative
and social support.

In this respect, Moroccan banks will provide, until the end of 2009, free of charge services on fund transfer
operations by Moroccan expatriates.

Morocco's banks will also apply the lowest exchange rate and will expand their networks abroad.

In the real estate sector, the Moroccans living abroad will benefit from the “Damane Assakane” (housing guarantee
loan), which can finance the whole cost of either acquiring or building a house.

The upper limit of the amount of the loan is fixed at 800,000 Moroccan Dihrams (93,730 dollars) on a repayment period
of up to 25 years.

The Ministry in charge of the Moroccan expatriates and Morocco's flag carrier Royal Air Maroc sealed, on Monday, a
partnership under which the expats will benefit from preferential tariffs.

2008 Monetary Policy Report is available to be downloaded (see the table of content below)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of charts, tables and boxes  5
Press release  9
Overview  11
1 Supply and overall demand trend  13
11 Output  13
12 Consumption  16
13 Investment  17
14 Foreign trade  18
2 Pressures on output capacity and labor market  21
21 Pressures on output capacity  21
22 Pressures on labor market  22
3 Import prices  25
31 World inflation  25
32 Oil prices  26
33 Commodity prices  27
34 Import price indexes  28
4 Monetary conditions and asset prices  32
41 Monetary conditions  32
42 Asset prices  38
5 Recent inflation trends  41
51 Inflation trends  41
52 Goods and services  42
53 Tradable and nontradable goods  43
54 Industrial producer price index  43
6 Inflation outlook  46
61 Baseline scenario assumptions  46
62 Inflation outlook and balance of risks  48
LIST OF CHARTS
Chart 11 : Quarterly change in overall agricultural and non-agricultural GDP  14
Chart 12 : Change in building and public works’ value added and in annual cement sales  15
Chart 13 : Annual change in cereal production and agricultural value added  15
Chart 14 : Year-to-year change in the value added of some activity branches  15
Chart 15 : Contribution of activity branches to overall growth  15
Chart 16 : Year-to-year quarterly change in household final consumption,
consumer loans and travel receipts  16
Chart 17 : Year-to-year quarterly growth of gross fixed capital formation,
non-agricultural value added, and equipment loans  17
Chart B 11 : Value added sectoral breakdown  19
Chart B 12 : Value added structure per institutional sectors  19
Chart B 13 : Sectoral breakdown of household final consumption  20
Chart B 14 : GFCF sectoral breakdown  20
Chart B 15 : GFCF breakdown per institutional sectors  20
Chart 21 : Overall output gap  21
Chart 22 : Non-agricultural output gap  21
Chart 23 : Lagged non-agricultural output gap and core inflation  21
Chart 24 : Industrial output capacity utilization rate  22
Chart 25 : Apparent labor productivity  22
Chart 26 : Change in unit production cost components  22
Chart 27 : Employment and unemployment rate in urban areas  23
Chart 28 : Net job creation per sector of activity  23
Chart 29 : Change in wage level and in employed labor force in the industry  24
Chart 210 : Quarterly minimum wage in nominal and real terms  24
Chart 31 : World oil price and pump price in Morocco  25
Chart 32 : Fuel pump price and transportation price  26
Chart 33 : Price index of food commodities and wheat  27
Chart 34 : Commodity price index excluding energy and metals  27
Chart 35 : Import price index excluding energy  27
Chart 36 : Food import price index  28
Chart B 31 : Market shares of Morocco’s main suppliers excluding energy  29
Chart B 32 : Structure of Moroccan imports from China  29
Chart B 33 : Moroccan index of Chinese import prices  30
Chart B 34 : Moroccan index of Chinese import prices of final consumption goods  30
Chart B 35 : US index of Chinese import prices  30
Chart 37 : Mining products’ import prices  31
Chart 38 : Import price index of semi-finished products  31
monetary policy report
Chart 41 : Change in interbank rate  32
Chart 42 : Change in interest rates’ structure per maturity on the Treasury securities market  33
Chart B 41 : Change in liquidity position and in weighted average rate  33
Chart B 42 : Liquidity position and weighted average rate
of the interbank money market  34
Chart B 43 : Change in reserve requirements  34
Chart B 44 : Change in liquidity factors effect  34
Chart B 45 : BAM interventions on the money market  34
Chart B 46 : Change in the mean and standard deviation of the interbank market weighted average rate  34
Chart 43 : Change in lending rates  35
Chart 44 : M3 annual growth and trend  35
Chart 45 : Money surplus  35
Chart 46 : Annual growth of M3 components  35
Chart 47 : Annual growth of nonfinancial agents’ demand deposits  36
Chart 48 : Bank loans’ annual growth and trend  36
Chart 49 : Loans’ structure per economic agent  36
Chart 410 : Annual growth of net foreign assets  37
Chart 411 : Quarterly change in net claims on the Government  37
Chart 412 : M3 growth breakdown per main counterparts  37
Chart 413 : Annual change in liquid investments  37
Chart 414 : Change in monetary and bond UCITS securities  38
Chart 415 : LI4 and Masi  38
Chart 416 : Exchange rate of the dirham  38
Chart 417 : Nominal and real effective exchange rate  38

A new agency for the development of investments will see the light of day soon. The bill providing for its creation was
unanimously voted for on Tuesday by the House of Advisors. 
The state-run agency's main mission is to organise communication campaigns promoting Morocco's investment
opportunities. 

In collaboration with all the concerned public and private entities, it will organise all sorts of events that are
likely to promote Morocco as a country of opportunities: fairs, exhibitions, seminars, conferences, etc.

The bill concerning its creation was also unanimously voted for in the House of Representatives on January 7, 2009. It
was adopted in the presence of the minister of trade, industry and modern technology. 

The agency will also conduct the necessary studies for the identification of investment niches, the identification of
the appropriate areas for the establishment of industrial zones and the development of activity zones relating to the
fields of industry, trade and modern technologies.

Besides enquiring about other countries experiences in terms of investment promotion, it will provide the government
with reports and analyses on Morocco's competitive situation for a better visibility.

Led by a general director, the administrative board will include government representatives, professional associations'
presidents and the president of the General Federation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM), as well as three other
individuals designed by the administration taking into consideration their competences in the field of investments.

In the last two decades, the Moroccan governments have made every effort to promote Morocco's attractiveness with
regard to foreign investors.

Morocco has thus undertaken a number of structural measures and reforms. The main changes in terms of investment are
the introduction in 1995 of the Investment Charter and the creation in 2002 of the 16 Regional Investment Centres
(CRIs).

These centres offer a one-stop shop for business creation and an integrated service for investors. 

However, many investors have complained about the slowness of procedures and the problem of corruption, which requires
the government to add these two issues to the agenda of the new investment agency.

The Centre Marocain de Conjoncture (CMC) will organise on February 24 a large-scale conference on the impact of the
international financial turmoil and how to cope with it.
Themed “the financial crisis: what is the way out?”, the conference includes two debates: “The crisis: what
perceptions? What perspectives?” and “The way out: what policies?”.

The event, to be organised in Casablanca's Royal Mansour Hotel, will see the participation of a number of government
officials, experts, and private and public economic players.

Besides the experts of the CMC, the list of contributors includes the finance and economy minister, the tourism
minister, the president of the Moroccan enterprise federation (CGEM), Royal Air Maroc's CEO, etc.

This annual meeting is part of CMC's efforts to contribute to the discussions on economic and socio-economic issues.
Last year's meeting was about Morocco's business climate.

The CMC is a Moroccan private think-tank specialised in economy.

The president the house representatives, Mustapha Mansouri, held a meeting in Rabat with a delegation of US congress
members' collaborators who are visiting the kingdom. 
According to a communiqué of House, Mansouri hailed, during the meeting, the quality of the two countries' bilateral
relation, especially after the free trade agreement which was signed by the two countries in March 2004 and which began
operating in 2006.

The two parties also discussed the social and economic reforms that Morocco has made, and the progress of the Sahara
issue.

RABAT (Morocco), Jan 27 (Bernama) -- Information should be perceived as a productive sector in the new knowledge and
communications-based economy and not just another of the common place consumer goods, said King Mohammed VI of Morocco.

In his message to the 8th Islamic Conference of Information Ministers (ICIM) here today, the Moroccan monarch said
"information is the weapon of modern times".

As such, he said the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) members have to strive doubly hard to enable media in
their countries to improve their performance.

He said information on the objectives of the OIC required the formulation of an objective, a constantly evolving
message and the adoption of modern means of communication.

It also requires preparation of efficient plans to enable the voice of the Islamic world to be heard, the king said.

These objectives, he said, could be met only if OIC countries adopt an open attitude towards modern information and
communication technology, promote a give-and-take interaction with advanced nations and protect the Islamic world
against negative influences.

"This is all the more relevant as some foreign media outlets often circulate cliches on Islam and Muslims, fan the
flames of fanaticism and extremism, and undermine the spirit of dialogue and mutual understanding," he said.

King Mohammed said it was absolutely necessary to lay the groundwork for bridging the digital gap between developed
countries and OIC member states so that "our citizens may gain access to knowledge, which is the gateway to development,
progress cooperation and joint action."

STMicroelectronics said yesterday that a total of 1,300 jobs across its Malta and Morocco plants would be affected by
the group’s plans to shed 4,500 jobs across its global operations this year.

The announcement came at a press conference in Paris yesterday, addressed by group managing director Alain Dutheil and
group chief executive officer Carlo Bozotti, in the wake of Tuesday’s announcement that the multinational plans
cutting thousands of its workers from its payroll across the world amid plunging profits and falling demand levels.

In addition to the job cuts announced for Malta and Morocco, the group, Bozotti specified yesterday morning, is also
planning laying off 500 workers in Germany and the Netherlands. 1,100 American jobs are to be affected at the group’s
plants in Carrollton, Texas and in Phoenix, Arizona. Another 1,600 employees are to be laid off from the group’s Asian
operations – particularly in Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

That brings the global total of layoffs to 4,500, as announced by the group earlier this week. Of that total, 3,300
jobs will be trimmed from the group’s industrial operations.

Finance Minister Tonio Fenech, who is believed to have been recently engaged in difficult talks with ST with a view to
keeping the Kirkop plant open – despite the global economic downturn, Malta’s comparatively high wages and exchange
rate pressures between the euro and the dollar – was quoted in other sections of the media yesterday as having said
the government was not aware of any plans for “mass redundancies” in Malta.

Speaking yesterday, both Bozotti and Dutheil did so in broad regional terms and as such did not go into
country-by-country specifics of the group’s lay off plans – and only mentioned the countries that would be hit by
the intentions to downsize its global staff complement of some 45,000 by close to 10 per cent.

Citing a “brutal downturn in the global economy”, Mr Dutheil yesterday said the overall objective was to reduce
costs by USD700 million this year – just under the USD786 million in losses the group incurred last year as revealed
in its financial statements this week.

Mr Bozotti added that in order to cope with falling sales, which are expected to be down by some 25 per cent over the
year’s first quarter, the group would also be operating at just 50 per cent capacity over the first three months of
the year and possibly maintain the decreased momentum over 2009’s second quarter as well.

“If necessary, we will reduce activity even more,” he said, adding that this was the first time the group had been
called to deal with such a crisis.

Nissan Motor Co., struggling to reverse a slump in profits, said Friday it was reviewing its joint participation in a
new factory in Morocco with its French partner Renault. "We are currently looking at some delays or postponements in
some of our projects, including Morocco," said Nissan spokeswoman Pauline Kee. "But at this point in time we do not have
any announcement." 
The Spanish newspaper El Pais reported Friday that Nissan had decided to withdraw from the joint project, which was
announced in 2007.

The Tangiers factory was due to start operating in 2010 with an investment of 600 million euros.

Renault will now build a smaller plant on its own, the report said.

Japanese manufacturers have seen a dramatic reversal in fortunes in recent months as recessions in major markets batter
demand for cars. Nissan has announced thousands of job cuts worldwide.

Intel Celeron M, low-cost version of mobile microprocessors, was introduced in January of 2004. Based on the same
micro-architecture as Pentium M, the Celeron processors included all performance enhancements that were incorporated
into Pentium M CPUs: separate 32 KB level 1 data and instruction caches, L2 cache with advanced transfer architecture,
400 Mhz Front Side Bus, branch prediction, data prefetch logic, and support for MMX, SSE and SSE2 instructions. Support
for SSE3 was added in more recent versions of Celeron M. The size of level 2 cache in Celeron M CPUs was slashed in half
- from 1 MB to 512 KB for processors with Banias core, and from 2 MB to 1 MB for processors with Dothan core. The
Celeron M microprocessors included many, but not all of power-saving features that were present in Pentium M processors.
Celeron M CPUs didn't support Deeper Sleep mode - this mode provided the lowest power consumption for Pentium M
processors. Enhanced SpeedStep technology, which reduces CPU's core voltage and frequency at times when maximum
processor performance is not required, was not included too. Some, but not all, Celeron M processors support Execute
Disable bit functionality. Celeron M 5xx series processors include Supplemental SSE3 instructions and support 64-bit
mode. 

The Celeron M processors were manufactured in 479-ball micro FC-BGA package and 478-pin micro FC-PGA, and could work in
the same motherboards as Pentium M processors.

Since December 2007, computers, PDAs, household appliances, shoes, flights and many more items have been made available
for purchase over the internet to Moroccans using cards issued by local banks. 

This technological marvel has emerged through the work of the Centre Monétique Interbancaire (CMI), which has just
deployed a new platform certified by Visa (Verified by Visa) and MasterCard (MasterCard SecureCode) to provide full
security in the processing of online payment operations, in accordance with international standards. 

"With this secure infrastructure, public and private organisations can offer their services and sell their goods online
to a target population of three million bank card holders," said Rachida Benabdellah, Director-General of the CMI, an
umbrella organisation for Moroccan banks. 

Whilst the CMI is offering the platform as payment recipient, provision of the electronic payment terminal will be the
responsibility of Maroc Télécommerce, the only e-commerce operator currently in the market, whose governing body is
essentially made up of banks. 

On the ground, the Moroccan web surfer who wants to make a purchase online must simply provide the number of his
locally-issued bank card, its expiration date and the three-figure security code which appears on the back of the card.


The merchant, meanwhile, must pay commission to both the CMI (between 2% and 3%) and Maroc Télécommerce (between
1.75% and 2.5%), depending on the volume of electronic transactions. This has to be done before online payment is made
available on the vendor's website. 

"With the dawning possibility of online purchases using local bank cards, administrators, telecommunications operators
and water and electricity suppliers will most certainly be the first to introduce online payment for their services,"
predicted Azdine Montassir Billah, Director-General of Maroc Télécommerce. 

Several companies have already joined this new system, such as technology vendor "Microchoix.ma" and online shoe shop
"Auderby.ma". Other companies are currently preparing to roll out online payment modules on their sales sites by the
first quarter of 2008, particularly in the field of air travel. 

The current year should also see a great rise in the number of locally issued bank cards, since the CMI will introduce
cards bearing its logo, which will boost the number of local cards currently in circulation. 

The Office de Changes has given its approval in principle for a tourist payment facility of 10,000 dirhams to be
included in Moroccan cards in 2008, enabling Moroccan online shoppers to make purchases from foreign websites.

company "DELL" signed, on Monday, a memorandum of understanding under which the American company will set up an
offshoring platform in the zone of Casanearshore.
 
    Through this project, the American company is expected to increase its headcount in Morocco by creating no less
than 200 new jobs in the short term.

    The memorandum was signed under the chairmanship of Moroccan Prime Minister, Driss Jettou by Minister Delegate in
charge of economic and general Affairs, Rachid Talbi El Alami, Kip Thompson, Dell's vice president for global
manufacturing, and Anwar Dahab, DELL-Morocco director general, in the presence of Moroccan finance minister, Fathallah
Oualalou.

    The U.S. company had signed, in April 2003, a memorandum of understanding with the Moroccan government on the
creation of a computer sales center in Casablanca, to export computers in particular to the French and Spanish markets. 


    Dell’s activities in the North African country consist of exporting its services such as orders processing,
customers service, technical assistance and the quality management.

    Present in Morocco since June 2003, DELL employs now a total of 1,600 employees and provides 160,000 training hours
a year for its human resources in the Kingdom. It is the second largest computer manufacturing company in the world, and
turns over USD 56Bn.