Contacts: In Washington: Dina El Naggar (202) 473-3245 Delnaggar@worldbank.org In Morocco: Najat Yamouri (212-37) 63 60 50 Nyamouri@worldbank.org  WASHINGTON, May 29, 2007 — The World Bank’s Board of Directors approved today the Morocco Energy Sector Development Policy Loan totaling US 100 million dollars.  This new Policy Development Loan comes in support to the Moroccan government’s efforts in the reform of the energy sector, which is confronting three main challenges related to the country’s energy security, to the liberalization process in the petroleum and power sectors and to the budgetary impact of high energy prices on the Moroccan economy in the short run.  To tackle these issues Morocco placed the energy sector reform in the top priorities of the structural reforms’ agenda that are needed to enable other sectoral reforms. Hence, the government launched a comprehensive reform program for the sector, focusing on three main areas : (i) energy security and sustainable development; (ii) energy sector productivity; (iii) Government budgetary exposure in the energy sector; and (iv) energy policy monitoring, evaluation, and communication  The World Bank’s new DPL supports the government reform agenda for the sector and has three main development objectives:  (i)                  Improve energy security through the development of domestic renewable energy aiming at substitution for imported fossil fuels, the enforcement of policy and regulation supporting renewable energy, and the formulation of a long-term energy import strategy.  (ii)                Foster competition in the energy market through regional system integration, liberalization of the high-voltage domestic electricity market and encouraging self-generation for large industries, and open access of competitors in the petroleum downstream market by 2009.  (iii)               Reduce Government budgetary subsidies for petroleum products while protecting low-income consumers.  The Energy Sector Development Policy Project squares neatly with the Bank’s Country Assistance Strategy for the Kingdom of Morocco (CAS) for the period 2005-2009 and will contribute to achieving the CAS’s first strategic objective consisting of improving competitiveness and the investment climate.  For more information on this project, please visit www.worldbank.org/projects  For more documents on the project, please visit : http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P099618  For more information on World Bank activities in Morocco, please visit www.worldbank.org/ma   |
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