Page 4 - Weekly highlights 6451

IV

Weekly highlights

LGV: 92 billion Dirhams for extensions

T HE railway plan to cover the quire 1,300 hectares. Travel time will
increase to four hours between Tan-
national territory requires the
giers and Agadir, two hours and fifteen
mobilization of 400 billion
Dirhams (USD 40 billion) . It also minutes between Casablanca and Aga-
provides for the development of 10 dir, and one hour between Marrakech
logistics zones, located across the and Agadir.
country, with a total area of 930 hec-
tares. This is at least what emerged n Civil engineering,
from the meeting of the Basic Infras- topography, geology
tructure Commission of the House of studies…: Prelimina-
Representatives which looked into the ry studies, particularly
results and prospects of rail transport. concerning basic in-
Mohamed Rabiî Khlie, CEO of frastructure, civil
the ONCF, provided the Members of engineering, and
Parliament with an overview of the topographic sur-
transformative projects in progress vey work on the
and other projects at the stage of stu- Marrakech-Aga-
dies and financial arrangements. The Thus, it will be necessary to build a per year. Two hun- dir line, have been
CEO of ONCF mentioned the Beni double railway, 390 km long, with dred thousand jobs will carried out. ONCF is
Mellal rail link, the electrification of an operating speed varying between thus be created. continuing studies on
the Fez-Oujda line and of the Aga- 170 and 320 km/h. The estimated operating methods and preparing geo-
dir-Laayoune and Tangiers-Tetouan land base for this project amounts to n Tangiers - Agadir in 4 hours: logical and geotechnical prospecting
lines, as well as the development of 2,500 hectares. For the boss of the Mohamed Rabiî Khlie’s dashboard operations. The fact remains that the
regional rail transport on the current ONCF, the realization of this LGV features the construction of the LGV boss of the ONCF insisted on having
network. will reduce the travel time between between Marrakech and Agadir. This all these studies appraised by the
However, it was the extension of Casablanca and Marrakech that will project requires the mobilization of 50 Chinese railway company, and this wi-
the high-speed line (LGV) to Mar- stand at 1 hour and 15 minutes, Mar- billion Dirhams (USD 5 billion), not thin the framework of the memoran-
rakech that caught the attention of rakech-Mohammed V Airport at one including the cost of mobile equip- dum of understanding for cooperation
parliamentarians. The cost of the pro- hour, and Tangiers-Marrakech at three ment. To do so, it will be necessary in the railway field, signed in 2016,
ject is estimated at 42 billion Dirhams hours. ONCF expects to welcome 12 to build a double track over 139 km, under the effective presidency of the
(USD 4.2 billion), without taking into million travelers in the first year, and with a mixed passenger and goods King, during his visit to China.o
account the Casablanca interchange. to save 213,000 tons of carbon gas link. Added to this is the need to ac- Mohamed CHAOUI

Wages: The public/private match

T HE civil service generally increase of 2.5% in real terms. In The two sectors are also at different increased by 5% in 2022 to 15.55 DH
the public service, wages have main- levels in terms of minimum wage. and should increase to 16.3 Dirhams
pays better than the private
tained their growth rate at 1.8% in The one in force in the public service next September. However, the private
sector. The gap between the
two sectors is significant: the average nominal terms and increased by 0.4% greatly exceeds the minimum wage sector cannot catch up with the public
monthly salary in the private sector instead of 1.2% in real terms”, accor- granted by private companies. In the service. The distribution of the num-
stands at 5,292 Dirhams (USD 529) ding to the 2021 report of Bank Al- public sector, the minimum wage has ber of salaried employees and that of
gross in 2021 versus 8,237 Dirhams Maghrib, the Moroccan central bank. undergone significant changes under civil servants also differs according
(USD 824) net in the civil service. In other words, wages in the private the pressure of negotiations carried to the pay bracket. Thus 8.55% of
These averages hide great dispari- sector have slowed down relative to out by the unions within the fra- civil servants received a net monthly
ties in the two sectors. In any case, the public sector. mework of social dialogue. The mini- salary of between 3,000 and 4,000
half of private sector employees earn Dirhams in 2021, 23.83% between
less than 2,865 Dirhams (USD 286) 4,000 and 6,000 and 31.63 between
(median salary). During this year, the The two sectors are at different levels in terms of minimum 6,000 and 8,000 Dirhams. In the pri-
economy grew by 7.9%, the strongest wage. The one in force in the public service greatly exceeds vate sector, the statistics of the Na-
growth since 1997. In addition to the the minimum wage granted by private companies tional Social Security Fund (CNSS)
basic effect, this performance can be reflect the low remuneration of a
explained by several factors, inclu- large segment of employees. More
ding the launch of a stimulus program That said, the comparison between mum wage went from 2,800 Dirhams than 4 in 10 employees have average
for a budget of 120 billion Dirhams the two sectors remains delicate, (USD 280) in 2011 to 3,000 Dirhams monthly wages that are lower than
(USD 12 billion) . Activity exceeded especially since they follow two dif- ( USD 300) in 2014 before reaching the minimum wage, i.e. 2,829 Di-
its pre-crisis level in several sectors, ferent remuneration logics. 3,362 Dirhams in 2021. Last year the rhams, and 55% are at less than 3,000
notably construction and retail, while The public sector is managed by a minimum wage in the civil service DH. The 2021 demographic report
the recovery remained partial in cer- complex system of grades, scales, reached 3,500 dirhams. On the other also reveals that 85% of employees
tain branches such as manufacturing and ranks. In the private sector, hand, in the private sector the mini- are declared by their employers as
industries. In this context, “wages in everything depends on the line of mum wage stood at 14.81 Dirhams earning less than 6,000 Dirhams, i.e.
the private sector fell by 1.2%, after business, the position, the size of (USD 1.5) per hour in 2021, which the ceiling level on the basis of which
an increase of 3.2% in 2020, in no- the company, the education, the represents 2,829 Dirhams per month. CNSS contributions are calculated. o
minal terms and of 2.5% versus an workload, and also the experience. The minimum hourly wage has been Khadija MASMOUDI

Friday 10 February 2023