| The American Chamber
of Commerce in Morocco (AmCham) is a non-profit, independent
association formed in 1966 by the leaders of U.S.
corporations in Morocco as well as by Moroccan companies,
multinationals, and other organizations and individuals
doing business with the United States.
AmCham was established under the auspices of the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce and the Association of American
Chambers of Commerce in Europe and the Mediterranean.
The Chamber’s members represent a broad spectrum
of business and financial affairs, and support AmCham
operations through annual dues.
Much of the work critical to AmCham’s success
is carried out by five committees: Commerce and Industry,
Free Trade, Corporate Citizenship, Executive Education,
and Events.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Morocco fully
supports the negotiation of a U.S.-Morocco Free Trade
Agreement. It will offer both direct and indirect
benefits for bilateral trade and investment. Direct
benefits relate to tariff reduction and the resulting
increase in market access, while indirect benefits
include competition-generated productivity increases
and economies of scale due to larger production runs.
Another form of indirect benefit will be the improvements
to the Moroccan business environment necessary for
the signing of a Free Trade Agreement.
Below are brief profiles of AmCham member companies
fully committed to the advancement of the Moroccan
economy and to the furthering of opportunities for
American business in the Kingdom.
Morocco Trade and Development
Services (MTDS)
Not long ago discussion of cutting edge IT on the
African continent would have given rise to more
than a few chuckles. Morocco Trade and Development
Services (MTDS), based in Rabat and ably led by
Managing Director Karl Stanzick, has been working
hard since 1993 to make this once fanciful and daunting
proposition a reality. As the premier Internet Service
Provider (ISP) in Morocco, MTDS is American owned
and managed. Founded in October 1993 by Jim Lowenthal,
a retired Foreign Service Officer (USAID), MTDS
became known for its quality of service when it
installed the first Internet node at the Al-Akhawayne
University in Ifrane in November 1995. MTDS followed
this in January 1996 by establishing the first public
access dial-up service in Morocco. MTDS currently
provides dial-up and leased line services in Rabat,
Casablanca, Kenitra and Tangiers.
Besides being an ISP, MTDS offers a wide range of
related IT solutions. These include hardware and software
sales, as well as planning and implementation of anything
from small shared modem Internet access to large corporate
intranet solutions. MTDS also designs and publishes
personal to large-scale corporate websites. The company
serves as the provider of choice for Morocco’s
Fortune 50 corporations, offering the full range of
IT service and support.
MTDS is also a consultant to many African telecom
companies. Because of its proven reputation, the U.S.
Government selected it to serve as the senior consultant
body for implementation of the Leland Initiative,
an ambitious project to assist 22 African countries
to establish Internet infrastructure and access. To
date, MTDS has installed Internet nodes in Mali, Madagascar,
Mozambique, Guinea-Conakry, Benin and the Ivory Coast.
CADtech
In 1995, three engineers realized their dream of
creating a high-tech IT startup in their native
Morocco with the birth of CADtech. Founded as an
engineering and consulting firm to offer state of
the art expertise and quality service in data processing,
geomantics, and geographical information systems
(GIS), in a few short years it has become the leader
in this market niche in Morocco.
Chemsedine Ould Sidi-Baba, CADtech’s Executive
Manager and a graduate of Cornell University, initially
saw a need in Morocco for products that would give
urban planners, property developers and others with
similar responsibilities the ability to cross-analyze
data with space as the only common factor. CADtech
accomplished this by taking the usual alphanumeric
data and combining it with geographic information.
As Sidi-Baba put it, “When you are developing
a country, proper GIS analysis is crucial.”
CADtech has conducted several projects for Moroccan
government agencies, including the Ministry of the
Interior and most recently the Moroccan Post Office.
The multi-stage plan for the Post Office consists
of optimizing the distribution of the agency’s
fleet of trucks and the quantification of data sets
to determine the best sites for new rural postal facilities.
CADtech is developing exciting products that will
have a measurable positive impact on people’s
lives. One of the most innovative is Project Simputer,
a partnership with Still Tech in Bangalore, India,
that could revolutionize how vital services are delivered
in rural and developing regions. The project has outfitted
personal desk assistants (PDAs) with voice synthesizers
and Smart Card readers. The genius of the device is
found in its simplicity, which enables even the illiterate
to speak into the synthesizer and have their voice
automatically translated into text. The Smart Card
system allows many people to use a single Simputer,
with each user storing his or her data on the removable
Card. Applications include students working on lessons
and physicians making house calls deep into remote
regions.
Cooper Maroc
Cooper Maroc, a family-owned pharmaceutical manufacturer,
has been serving the people of Morocco since 1933.
The company’s manufacturing unit is the first
pharmaceutical firm in the Kingdom to obtain ISO
9002 certification. Cooper Maroc, which currently
purchases $20 million worth of raw materials and
finished products from the EU every year, is looking
forward to sourcing some of this business to U.S.
companies under an FTA. The increased competition
will necessarily result in lower costs to Cooper.
For Strategy Director Ayman Sheikh Lahlou, competition
“is the key word for the FTA. Competition is
always good.”
Under the terms of an FTA, Cooper Maroc would like
to import and distribute American medical, hygiene,
and health care brands, increasing Moroccan market
access for its U.S.-based suppliers. Joint ventures
with American pharmaceutical firms are also a possibility.
For Cooper Maroc’s CEO Jaouad Sheikh Lahlou,
and all upper management, corporate citizenship is
an imperative. The company is heavily involved in
the development of products that aggressively target
the chronic illnesses that the poor of the country
deal with on a daily basis. In a partnership with
the Seattle-based Population Services Institute (PSI),
Cooper Maroc authorized the discounted sale of its
oral rehydration product Biosel to combat chronic
childhood diarrhea. To date, almost 5.5 million packets
have been sold, saving the lives of thousands of children.
Strategy Director Lahlou commented that “at our
company life is about more than the bottom line, it
is about gaining the satisfaction of having made a
difference in people’s lives.”
Pfizer
Pfizer Morocco has been contributing to Morocco’s
economic development since 1985. In that year, Pfizer
Pharmaceuticals Group purchased a Moroccan pharmaceutical
manufacturing plant located in the Atlantic coast
town of El Jadida. A total of nearly $24 million
was invested in upgrading the facility. The end
product meets European GMPS and Pfizer international
quality standards. Pfizer’s El Jadida plant
produces 90% of the 65 Pfizer pharmaceutical products
sold in the Kingdom, with the remaining 10% imported
from the United States and Europe. Karl Lintell,
M.D., Regional Director for Pfizer Pharmaceutical
Group’s Francophone Africa Region, explains
that the most pressing issue for international pharmaceutical
companies in Morocco today is the lack of patent
protection compliance mandated under the terms of
the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Intellectual
Property Rights. This important issue is being addressed
as a part of the ongoing FTA negotiations. Lintell
is quick to point out that Morocco “offers
good-quality, skilled people, and a good infrastructure”
for foreign investors considering an entry into
the Moroccan market.
In November 1998, Pfizer and the Edna McConnell Clark
Foundation formally launched the International Trachoma
Initiative (ITI). Trachoma is an eye infection that
affects the inner upper eyelid and cornea, with children
especially susceptible. Repeated infection often leads
to blindness in adulthood. In 1995, Pfizer Morocco
was involved with the Ministry of Health in a clinical
study that confirmed the effectiveness and safety
of the company’s Zithromax brand antibiotic in
the treatment of trachoma. Since 1999, Pfizer has
donated 2.7 million Zithromax treatments to the Moroccan
Ministry of Health. For its efforts, Pfizer Morocco
won the AmCham Corporate Citizenship Award for its
contribution to the people of Morocco.
CMS Energy
In April 1996, CMS Energy Corporation of Dearborn,
Michigan and its partner, the Swiss/Swedish company
ABB Energy Ventures initiated contracts with Morocco's
national utility, ONE, to build and operate a 1320
megawatt electric power project in Jorf Lasfar.
The $1.3 billion state-of-the-art Jorf Lasfar plant,
located roughly 80 miles southwest of Casablanca,
supplies over 60 percent of Morocco’s growing
electricity demand. CMS employs more than 300 Moroccans
who benefit from advanced training and on-site educational
opportunities. The Jorf Lasfar plant was equipped
with the latest clean power generation technology,
which has greatly improved Morocco’s environment
by replacing older, inefficient facilities.
Plant General Manager, CMS local representative, and
recently elected AmCham President Larry Dewitt has
ensured the plant’s adherence to the strictest
of environmental regulations. The company has adopted
a no-tolerance policy for surface and groundwater
contamination. It has instituted an ash recycling
program and sells much of its waste water to Moroccan
cement companies. It has even gone so far as to install
a barrier across its sea water intake system to protect
migratory fish populations.
The company is constructing the Jorf Lasfar Industrial
Park adjacent to the plant that is expected to generate
more than $21 billion and create more than 230,000
jobs for the Moroccan economy within a decade. CMS
regards the FTA as the “value-added” that
will ensure the success of the park.
Eurodis
Eurodis is one of Morocco’s leading distributors
of cosmetics and beauty products. The company represents
major European brands in the Kingdom, with a total
turnover of more than $8.1 million. Eurodis General
Manager Nihrane Abdeslam explains that the company
is interested in the opportunities an FTA will provide
to “explore new U.S. brands and introduce them
to the Moroccan market.” Eurodis has over a
decade of experience in the sector and offers a
strong sales network and efficient distribution
facilities.
DIORH
Founded in 1993, DIORH is a human resources consulting
company that specializes in recruitment, assessment,
and training. The company’s skills and expertise
cover a wide range of human resources activities.
DIORH is committed to helping organizations increase
their productivity through better use of their human
resources, and enables its clients to achieve real
advantages. More than finding talent for an organization,
DIORH evaluates the candidate for international
job responsibilities and assignments. DIORH is committed
to identifying individual with the skills and the
ability to succeed in a multi-cultural business
environment. DIORH also develops training options
to fit the needs of clients. These are based on
depth assessment and analysis of performance levels
The goal of DIORH is to assist clients in achieving
a competitive advantage by providing them with strategically
focused, committed and competent talent.
LAPROPHAN, S.A.
Since its creation in 1949 , LAPROPHAN, S.A., a
leading Moroccan pharmaceutical company, has been
dedicated to the manufacture and distribution of
licensed patent medicines from international partners
including France, Germany, Switzerland, the United
States, Denmark, and the United Kingdom, as well
as a wide range of its own brand name medicines
developed over years of extensive research conducted
in its Research & Development Center. To remain
in the forefront of the pharmaceutical industry,
LAPROPHAN Laboratories developed new patent medicines
recognized at the international level by over 50
countries. LAPROPHAN, S.A.’s product portfolio
of over 250 pharmaceuticals covers most of the therapeutic
classes and targets a wide variety of diseases.
This has enabled the company to expand rapidly overseas.
It currently exports to Africa, the Middle East
and Europe. LAPROPHAN is seeking partnerships within
the scope of their ongoing activities. Laprophan,
S.A. President Abderrahim Bennis explains that the
company’s goal is to actively participate in
the evolution of the industry through a commitment
to cutting edge research.
Les Celliers de Meknes
Les Celliers de Meknes, Morocco’s premier winery,
is a family-owned operation that combines the finest
traditions of the winemaker’s art with the
latest technology to create internationally-renowned
vintages year after year. Under the leadership of
Director and Export Manager Reda Zniber, son of
the founder, Les Celliers de Meknes has been recognized
for the quality of its product, including the prestigious
Prize of Excellence from the International Challenge
of Bordeaux. In the past year, the Zniber family
made the strategic decision to invest 10 million
euros in state-of-the-art production equipment to
ensure continued excellence.
Les Celliers de Meknes realizes the potential
of the U.S. market, exporting 50,000 bottles to
the U.S. annually for nearly a decade. According
to Zniber, the company “has a lot to do in
the U.S.,” and is working hard to allow more
Americans the opportunity to experience some of
the finest wine available anywhere.
Global Rhythm
Global Rhythm is a World Music magazine that features
lifestyle-oriented coverage. This monthly publication’s
goal in publishing is to awaken the reader’s
senses and to bridge the gap between our new, vibrant,
pluralistic society and the media that serve it.
By design, the magazine captures the attention of
this audience with a multicultural spin in its coverage
of international music,film, food and travel.
Chenowth Racing Products
Chenowth is the most experienced manufacturer of
high performance off-road, all terrain vehicles
for racing, recreation, and military/security applications.
The company was established in 1968 to design, test
and manufacture specialized vehicles for off-road
racing, recreation and military uses. Chenowth vehicles
have earned worldwide fame for their speed and durability
in peace and war. Chenowth racing cars routinely
win (and finish three cars in the top five) in such
races as the Baja 1000.
Laboratoires AZBANE S.A.
Laboratoires AZBANE S.A, is a renowned manufacturer
of cosmetics and hotel amenities. Located in Casablanca
– Morocco, it is part of the AZBANE Group,
which includes five companies, the factory and head
office in Casablanca, and a subsidiary office in
Paris - France. They are the leading manufacturer
of cosmetics, fragrances and hotel guest amenities
in Africa.
From the very beginning nearly four decades ago,
AZBANE has produced high cosmetics and hotel guest
amenities kits. Thanks to their passion about the
use of natural raw materials, the most modern production
techniques, and a multi-talented design team that
can conceive and personalize any request, AZBANE
achieves unmatched quality at very competitive prices.
Providence Trade Advisors
Providence is an alliance of western trade and investment
professionals representing firms wishing to do business
in Morocco. A combined 60 years of senior business
experience includes 30 years in North America and
Europe, and 30 years in Morocco. “Providence
talks your language whether you are from Little
Rock, London, or Lyon. Yet, our deep knowledge and
contacts make achieving your goals certain and easy.”
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