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Cranes at Salalah Port (Oman)

Efforts to cut bureaucratic red tape are making headway: there has been a sharp increase in new business starts and, according to Doing Business 2007 (World Bank Group), Morocco was the top business reformer in the Arab world in 2005-2006. The report suggested that the North African nation was especially effective in simplifying business regulations, strengthening property rights, easing tax burdens, and providing access to credit.

Morocco’s economy is highly dependent on phosphate mining and tourism, the country’s third largest source of revenue. According to the Ministry of Tourism, some 6.4 million tourists visited Morocco in 2006 compared to 4.4 million in 2002. Approximately half of these tourists are native speakers of English, particularly from the UK, and increasing numbers are returning to Morocco to retire, predominately in Marrakech.

Morocco – 2007 Forecast Top Ten Manufactured U.S. Imports ($ Billion)

(SOURCE: IRmep)

Morocco’s “Vision 2010” aspires to attract 10 million tourists by the year 2010, generating an additional 600,000 job opportunities. According to the Tourism Ministry, this ambitious strategy is intended to diversify the tourism product, develop training and partnership opportunities, and increase tourism’s contribution to the GDP by 8.5 percent annually to reach 20 percent in 2010. The strategy seems to be working: An estimated $20 billion has been pledged in recent years by international companies in real estate and tourism projects.

Jordan

The U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which entered into force at the end of 2001, was the first such agreement between an Arab nation and the United States. The FTA is credited with helping to make Jordan a more predictable market for U.S. exporters: since 2001, America’s share of the Jordanian market has fluctuated by only 6 - 10 percent, and U.S. merchandise exports to that nation are anticipated to exceed $1 billion in 2007.

In terms of Jordanian exports to the United States, more than one hundred new factories are now producing fleece articles, T-shirts, and pants for such U.S. outlets as Target, Wal-Mart, and L.L. Bean. Apparel accounted for 85 percent of Jordanian exports to the USA in 2005, up from 58 percent in 2000. Much of the initial growth can be attributed to the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZ) that Jordan established in partnership with Israel. But over time, more jobs and exports can be attributed directly to the FTA itself.

Much of the labor required to generate these apparel exports came from Asians, raising concerns that Jordan has been running “sweat shops.” Jordan’s leadership has moved quickly to address this problem by cracking down on those who violate labor laws and by establishing training programs that will increase the number of skilled Jordanian workers. »

Jordan – 2007 Forecast Top Ten Manufactured U.S. Imports ($ Billion)

(SOURCE: IRmep)