Prime Minister Youssoufi reviews his government's performance
Morocco, Politics, 8/5/2002

Moroccan Prime Minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi on Thursday made a report before the house of representatives (lower chamber of parliament), wherein he drew a balance-sheet of his alternation government since it was first appointed in 1998.

Youssoufi stressed that the government he leads came as a materialization of a will for change by the Moroccan people and political forces.

Youssoufi, who is also leader of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, was appointed Prime Minister in 1998 by the Late King Hassan II. He formed a center-left coalition government that marked a genuine change in Morocco after decades of right-wing rule. The experiment is commonly referred to in Morocco as the alternation government.

In his report, Youssoufi stressed that the alternation government sought, part of its priorities to hoist premiership to its constitutional rank. "We made a priority concern of elevating the premiership to the rank it is imparted by the constitution to enable it carry out constitutional prerogatives, namely organizing and promoting government action and providing coordination and arbitration," he said.

The Prime Minister noted that the top priority for the government was Morocco's territorial integrity, which is a matter of national consensus in accordance with the firm commitment between the King and the people. "We will exert more efforts to retrieve all regions and end occupation of the cities of Sebta and Mellila and usurped neighboring islands relying on international law and abiding by the treaty of friendship, cooperation and good neighborliness with Spain," he said.

Youssoufi touched in this connection on the issue of the Moroccan Sahara. He renewed the government's readiness to cooperate with the United Nations to find a political way out favoring decentralized regional rule within national territorial unity and national sovereignty. "With royal guidance, it (the government) stressed to the world the country's stand which rejects any proposal that would affect territorial unity and strongly opposes any partition of our southern provinces," he said.

Youssoufi, who highlighted the attachment of the inhabitants of the Moroccan southern provinces to their Moroccan identity and to their King, underlined that Morocco will continue developing its southern provinces, no matter the obstacles its enemies erect.

"No obstacle erected by the enemies of our territorial unity will stand in the way of our efforts to settle once for all the issue with God's assistance," he said.

The Prime Minister, called on the world community "to keep up pressure for the release of Moroccan civilians and servicemen, detained in Tindouf (south western Algeria) by the separatist gang (Polisario).

Youssoufi lauded "the results obtained thanks to meaningful diplomatic action which covered all continents, leading several countries to withdraw recognition of the whimsical Sahrawi republic (self-proclaimed by the Polisario) confirming the collapse of theses mongered by the foes of our territorial unity."

Diplomatically, he said, the government's action was a major success. The government, building on the king's orientations, played a decisive part in activating the Moroccan diplomacy, at the Arab, Islamic, African and international scenes, he said, adding the government efforts reflected a strong will to consolidate Morocco's outstanding standing as an open country adhering to democracy and modernity and as an active and influential partner in its geo-political environment.

Drawing a picture of Morocco before the advent of the alternation government, Youssoufi recalled that Morocco was on the verge of a global social crisis, the society was suffering from painful memories of human rights abuses, social values and ideals and cultural and civilizational references were starting to decline, especially among the youth, and there was general belief that political action is incredible and elections were ignored.

"In order to overcome such a situation, it became necessary to make a qualitative leap forward," he said, adding the government focused its action on the human element, developing human resources through education and training and consolidating economic and social rights.

He recalled the political reforms endeavor the alternation government started with the consolidation of democracy as a prime objective.

Part of this drive, Youssoufi said, the rehabilitation of basic individual rights topped the government's commitments in the field of human rights.

"Throughout the last years, we have been striving to rehabilitate the victims of the past, in a process that was inaugurated by His Majesty King Mohammed VI when he appointed an independent body to compensate victims of forced disappearance and abusive detention," he said, adding "the objective was, indeed, fulfilled with the allocation of 890 million Dirhams to settle the situation of more than 1,200 victims or their inheritors."

The Prime Minister equally touched on the reform of press laws and the consolidation of the freedom to issue publications and the judiciary guarantees of the press freedom. In the same vein, he recalled the efforts made to develop and liberalize Morocco's audio-visual media, in such a way to ensure freedom of expression and encourage national creation.

Part of the efforts to readjust Morocco's political scene, Youssoufi underlined the government's efforts to restore the credibility of institutions and of public affairs management and said the government seeks to hold honest elections in Morocco. "We are strongly determined to make of the coming elections the first honest polling in the new era and under the supervision of the alternation government," he said.

He underlined that such objective can be achieved, inter alia, through "changing the uninominal polling system in force, as it is easily used in rigging elections and blasting democracy through frauds and the use of money," and the adoption of the list voting system.

Touching on social issues, he stressed that the government worked out a draft wage system for the public service that will be submitted to the Civil Service Supreme Council which will convene for the first time in the history of the Moroccan administration.

Judicially, Youssoufi reviewed the alternation government's efforts to make the different administrations observe the rulings issued against them in order to protect citizens' rights, preserve the sacredness of justice and consecrate the rule of law in matters of business.

"During this alternation tenure, between 80 and 88% of rulings delivered in judiciary cases between individuals or against insurance companies and more than 45% of rulings issued against state institutions were implemented," he specified.

The royal initiative to set up the Diwan Al-Madhalim (ombudsman) also came in this context and to meet citizens' hopes, he said, adding "It was an illustration of the Royal will to lift obstacles erected between the administration and citizens and a crowning of the increasing interest by all government sectors to address the citizens' grievances."

During its four-year tenure, the alternation government made of women issues one of its priorities, hoisting such questions to the rank of a genuine national issue, Yousoufi stated further.

"We instituted during this stage a new culture of handling women issues, based on the tolerant teachings of Islam and on combining tradition and modernity, within a constructive dialogue and efficient partnership," he said, adding the path is still long to go to ensure women's economic, social, juridical and political rights.

The reform of education was another major field of action for the government. In this vein, Youssoufi stressed the need to put into effect the National Education and Training Charter, particularly the Declaration outlining the basic commitments.

Part of the indicators of the importance of the sector for Morocco, the Prime Minister cited the "making of the 2000-2009 decade, a decade for national education and training and giving the sector a priority status, second only to territorial integrity, are part of these commitments."

"To this end, the government worked out a package of laws and regulations revolving around three central axes: compulsory and generalized education, quality education and education adapted to the job market requirements," he added.

In this connection, Youssoufi said schooling rates have increased in 1998-2001, while the schooling of six-year old children jumped rapidly from 37.2% in 1997-98 to 77.2% 2000-2001 and to about 91% in 2001-2002. "For children in the 6-11 age bracket, the rate went up from 68.6% to 84.6% and to 90% during the same years," he added.

The government decided to increase the education budget by 5% annually during the currently decade," said Youssoufi, adding education presently soaks more than 25% of the general budget.

According to Youssoufi, laws and incentives granted to the private sector will help increase this sector's contribution to education from 3 to 20% during the same period.

Under the alternation government, scientific research was reoriented towards practical fields and towards mastering technologies through a gradual increase in financial resources to reach 1% of the Gross Domestic Product by the end of the current decade," he said.

Surveying the government's action in cultural realms, Youssoufi laid a special emphasis on an integrated strategy devised to match the aspirations of Morocco in the third millennium, blending all the components of the country's cultural identity.

New information technologies were made a sector of paramount importance and a vector to make of Morocco an emerging nation, on the basis of a strategy, encouraging the use of information technologies in enterprises, administrations, schools, universities and at home through providing high debit. "The government equally endeavored to narrow the digital divide, reduce the high cost of using this new technology and secure structures to support small and medium enterprises and encourage them to use these techniques," he added.

The Prime Minister also surveyed the efforts made by the alternation government at the economic level, saying the government tried to gather conditions to the economic take-off and sustained growth.

Despite a very difficult national and international juncture marked by three consecutive years of drought, a hike in oil prices, the economy succeeded to remain steady and scored an average GDP growth of 3.8 percent annually between 1998 and 2001, compared to 2.6 percent between 1993 and 1997, he said, adding this growth is expected to reach 4.4 percent in 2002.

Inflation was curbed to a low rate, not exceeding 1.5 percent as an annual average, the purchasing power of most needy citizens was preserved and budget deficit was generally maintained at less than 3 percent of the GDP, said the Premier.

In the same vein, Youssoufi noted that foreign indebtedness was lowered from $ 19.1 billion in 1997 to about $ 14.1 billion in 2001.

The remittances of Moroccan expatriates, which stagnated up to 1997, recorded an average growth of 21.7 percent annually between 1998 and 2001, he said, adding tourism returns whose growth did not exceed 4 percent between 1993 and 1997, also recorded a noteworthy growth that reached 20.5 percent per year.

These telling figures, he said, show that the government was able to check basic financial balances and to secure the stability of the general framework of national economy, these two factors being essential prerequisites to secure adequate conditions to a sound, sustained economic growth.

The government made of the improvement of national and foreign investment one of its top priorities to win the employment challenge. Part of the drives to reach this objective, Youssoufi cited the setting up of a ministerial commission of investments as a crucial tool to face up red tape and lower obstacles hampering investments.

He equally cited the creation of regional investment centers that will be operational before year's end.

This voluntarist and multi-faceted approach to investment management yielded very positive results, said Youssoufi, noting that foreign investment tangibly progressed as nearly $ 7 billion were injected in our country between 1998 and 2001. "This means that the investment attracted during four years exceeds the overall investment attracted over the past twenty years," he said.

For Youssoufi, the government was successful in liberalizing communications, entitling Morocco to enter the information society of the 21st century. The country, he said, is making its first strides towards the liberalization of the sectors of oil, gas, transport, and especially road transport of goods and air transport.

Social issues were elevated to a higher rank part of the alternation government policy to make up for the chronic and dangerous delays affecting them and which piled up throughout the years aggravating poverty and social exclusion in our country, especially in rural areas, said Youssoufi.

In this connection, the government increased the share of social programs in the state budget going up from 41% in 1997 to 48% in 2002, said Youssoufi, adding job generation was a major concern and a daunting issue.

The overall unemployment rate decreased nation-wide from 13.9% in 1999 to 12.5% in 2001, while urban unemployment came down from 22.5% in 1999 to 19.5% in 2001, and rural unemployment remained steady, thanks to the government's effective programs to alleviate drought effects, he said.

The unemployment rate among no-degree holders decreased markedly during the same period while degree-holders unemployment remained steady at 27% thanks to more than 130,000 positions made available in 2001, he said.

Part of its drives to reduce social gaps, the alternation government endeavoured to usher in deep reforms in order to promote the situation in rural areas.

In this connection, the government earmarked considerable financial resources for rural development that reached an annual average of 9.5 billion Dirhams between 1998 and 2002, marking a 50% rise in comparison with 1997-1998, he said.

Additionally, 5.7 billion Dirhams were invested in agriculture, which was beneficial for rural populations, said the Premier, who also cited other projects like rural roads construction and social-educational promotion. In this regard, the number of schooled children in rural areas exceeded 1.8 million pupils, marking a 28% rise compared to 1998, he said, adding the schooling rate in rural areas reached 75%, including 70% for the schooling of girls, increasing by 48%. This important breakthrough in this crucial sector helped reduce the deficit.

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