International groups bidding for Morocco's private GSM license

The renowned international groups bidding for Morocco's 2nd private GSM license shows the trust enjoyed by the Kingdom, Moroccan privatization minister Rachid Filali said.

Addressing an International Colloquy on Telecoms in the Middle-east and North Africa, held in Cairo, the Moroccan minister said seven giant telecom consortiums qualified for the final competition of the $ 500 Mln private mobile network. To enhance Morocco's telecom liberalization, the government adopted several legal incentives moves to bring in more investment to modernize Morocco's telecom infrastructures to serve the interests of enterprises and bolster their competitiveness.

He also spoke of the rapid evolution marking the multimedia world and affirmed that Morocco's privatization program will gain momentum during the 1999-2000 fiscal year thanks to the sale of up 30 % in state telecom company "Ittissalat al-Maghrib" and the cession of the 2nd GSM mobile phone.

These two operations would bring up to $ 1.0 billion, the Moroccan minister added.