Official visits construction site of cinema studios in Ouarzazate

Moroccan tourism minister, Adil Diouiri, visited on Monday the construction site of the "Dino De Laurentis" cinema studios, destined to be the largest in all Morocco.

The project, extending over 150 hectares, consists of several cinema studios that will be operational by end 2004.

Estimated to cost 40 million DH (around US$ 4 million), the first part of the project comprises a shooting site, four decoration crafts workshops, three production workshops and other locations for costumes.

Figures released by the southern city's tourism board show that 419 movies were shot in the city in the last 6 years. The total includes 60 features movies, 32 short movies, 181 reports and 146 documentaries. These productions required 1.5 billion DH in investments (around US$ 150 million) and generated 100,000 provisional jobs.

The city will also host the Euro-Mediterranean training Center for cinema and audio-visual professions. The project is carried out with an investment of over 2 millions Euro (22 million DH) by Italy's region of Latium, the Cinecitta Holding group, and the Kenzamane studio of ourzazate.