King Mohammed visits Oujda prison, regional investment center, old Medinah

Morocco's King Mohammed VI visited this Saturday the prison of Oujda where he inquired about progress in the program carried out by the Mohammed VI Foundation for the reintegration of inmates, and visited the prison pavilions and the newly-equipped vocational training facilities.

The foundation has equipped, for a total cost of 2.5 million DH (US$ 25,000), sewing, embroidery, plumbing, carpentry, electricity, mechanics and computer workshops.

The program is part of the Foundation's pilot project, worth 47 million DH (US$ 4.7 mln), to be conducted in several Moroccan penitentiary institutions.

The sovereign then handed to the prison administration a batch of medical equipment and devices for the prison health center.

King Mohammed VI also visited on the same day the Oriental region's investment center where he heard explanations on the facility set up as a single administration for investors to fulfill all administrative procedures.

The center has set a deadline of 72 hours for the creation of an enterprise and is projecting to cut it to 24 hours. The center has since its creation in October 2002 delivered 43 enterprise licenses. Out of 152 project applications submitted to the center, 54 projects were authorized for a total investment of 492.8 million DH (US$ 49.2 mln) and 730 new jobs created.

In the same city, the king visited the old medinah rehabilitation project, meant to safeguard the eastern city's history and cultural legacy, restructure the millenary city's economic and promote tourism activities. The project, worth 20 million DH consists in maintaining and renewing the sewage network, repaving roads, restoring time-worn houses, opening new streets and rebuild some parts of the wall that surround the old 30-ha Medinah. The old city hosts some 1,250 people and 432 shops. A rate of 5.5% of constructions is in a state of decay.

On his road to Oujda, the sovereign made a stopover at the locality of El-Aioune where the king was greeted by cheerful populations.