Activities in Morocco

1. Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC; Governor: Koji Tanami) signed two Japanese ODA loan agreements totaling up to 22,054 million yen in the aggregate respectively with the Office National de l'Eau Potable of the Kingdom of Morocco on March 28 to finance the Rural Water Supply Project (III) and its Caisse pour le Financement Routier on March 31 to finance the Rural Road Improvement Project.
2. Since 2001, the Moroccan economy has registered an annual average GDP growth of about 5.4%. Despite robust growth, people living in poverty still account for 14.2% of the total population, and roughly 70% of them are living in rural areas.[1] To raise their income levels and improve their living conditions, it is essential to increase their access to public services through the development of basic infrastructure, including roads, water supply facilities and power systems.
3. To address this situation, the Moroccan government and the country's private sector have been making joint efforts to reduce poverty and redress regional disparities based on the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), prepared following a proposal made by King Mohammed VI. These ODA loans will support such efforts being made by the Moroccan government. In addition to an international pledge made in 2005 to double Japanese ODA to Africa, the government of Japan is currently considering increased assistance to the African region by looking toward the Tokyo International Conference on African Development IV (TICAD IV) scheduled for May this year. In line with this government policy, JBIC intends to give favorable consideration to the provision of Japanese ODA loans to Africa.
4. Highlights of the Projects financed are as follows:

(1) Supporting Rural Road Development for Rural Economic Development
(Rural Road Improvement Project)
While more than 80% of Morocco's major roads—highways, national roads and regional roads—are paved, prefectural, provincial and other local roads remain underdeveloped. Paved prefectural roads make up only one half of the total, and access to roads for rural community populations remains low at 54% (2005).[2] Thus the urban-rural disparity in this respect is a development issue that needs to be addressed.

In this Japanese ODA loan financed project, rural roads will be developed or upgraded in nine prefectures which have been accorded high priority in terms of access to roads and poverty reduction with a view to increasing the access to road transport for the people living near the roads and improving the efficiency of rural transport. The Project will thereby support regional economic development and poverty reduction in the targeted areas, which will lead to the alleviation of regional disparities.

(2) Supporting the Development of Rural Water Supply Facilities to Improve Living Conditions in the Northern Mountainous Areas
(Rural Water Supply Project (III))
In Morocco, more than 90% of urban areas, including the capital city of Rabat and Casablanca, have access to piped water, and even in rural areas, more than 70% on average receive water supply services. In contrast, the proportion of households having access to water is as low as 20-30% in the northern mountainous areas where water sources are scarce, access to roads is poor and villages are not distributed closely together. In these areas, it is women and children who engage in the labor of fetching water. People in these areas who use untreated water are also subject to the risk of infection by water-born diseases. To improve these conditions, JBIC has supported the country's rural water supply system development to date.

In this Japanese ODA loan financed project, rural water supply facilities will be developed to supply safe drinking water in the three northern prefectures where only a small proportion of people have access to potable water and poverty reduction is higher than the national average. The Project will thereby support improvement in the living conditions and poverty reduction for the people living in these areas, which will lead to the alleviation of regional disparities.
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• [1] The Moroccan government defines the "poverty ratio" as the percentage of the population whose living standard is lower than the relative poverty threshold. In 2004, this threshold was 1,687DH (about 23,000 yen) per month for an average urban household (of 5.6 family members), and 1,745DH (about 24,000 yen) per month for an average rural household (of 6.4 family members).
• [2] According to the Direction des Routes et de la Circulation Routière, Ministère de l'Equipement et du Transport, access to roads in a rural community is defined as "the ratio of the number of people living in the villages constituting 50 or more households and located within the 1-kilometer radius of a paved or unpaved road to the total population of the rural community."