Electronic Commerce

Overview

As a developing country, e-commerce is just in its beginning stage.  As the Government of Morocco (GOM) realizes the importance of electronic commerce development, will affect all of the important aspects of society such as culture, education, public services, employment, and the economy.   It has embarked major initiatives to encourage the growth of the e-commerce and Internet technology.

• Moroccan government inaugurated its first Web site in July 1996.
• It is estimated that there are approximately 70,000 PCs sold in 1999.
• An estimated 50 percent of these PCs are assembled in country by a number of small local original equipment manufacture (OEM) firms
• In 1999 a total Internet user community in Morocco is estimated of somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000. 
• Estimated there are between 130-300 ISPs, utilizing value-added services from IAM’s infrastructure.

Government barrier on E-Commerce

The Moroccan government recognizes the importance of the high technology industry and e-commerce to Morocco.   However, there are several e-commerce issues the government still needs to be addressed.

Electronic signatures and electronic payment

Morocco's current law does not recognize electronic signatures therefore the validity of any contact entered into electronically is questionable.  To successfully participate in e-commerce, the Moroccan government will have to reform these laws to provide for legally recognizable electronic signatures and electronic payment. 

Encryption

The ANRT is currently drafting this law such that the draft legislation submitted to the government will agree with internationally accepted parameters.   Encryption is a necessary tool to achieve better protection of confidential information that is sent over the Internet. It is also necessary to provide security for payments made through electronic commerce. 

Privacy

To encourage Morocco's participation in e-commerce, Morocco needs to enact legislation that will protect the personal information of those individuals who choose to participate in e-commerce. 

Intellectual property 

Morocco does not currently have laws that limit content or assign liability.  A question to be addressed is who is legally responsible when the information displayed may be illegal or immoral? 

Technology Crimes

Morocco still need to address issues such fraud, piracy, sabotage, espionage, and vandalism for transmitting information on the Internet. The law should provide for government intervention when necessary to reach the criminal responsible for such acts. 

Monopolistic Practices 

IAM, Morocco's former government-owned Telephone Company is still controlling the private anti-competitive practices should be examined. If IAM continues with this type of behavior, the most likely result will be that Morocco's 200 ISP's will be reduced to one ISP, which is IAM.  The monopolistic behaviors are:  

1.Grabbing for market share at the expense of ISPs.

2.Arbitrarily changed the terms and conditions of contracts it entered into with ISPs 

3.Competing directly with the ISP's it originally regulated on more favorable terms than those granted to the ISPs

E-Commerce helps Business development:

Electronic commerce and information technology has helped the GOM diversify the economy away from agriculture and toward value-added services and industrial production.  Last year, there were 83 private Internet service providers (ISPs) in Morocco, now there are more than 230.

Even though, telephone and facsimile are still the primary modes of communication for many Moroccan businesses.

• Web design and Internet/electronic commerce consulting.  They have being created specifically designed around electronic commerce.

• Arthur Andersen in Casablanca recently added four new consultants to assist Moroccan businesses with how to reconfigure back-office operations as well as sales and marketing to make the best use of the Internet. 

• There are also new retail service operations like cyber cafes, prevalent today in Rabat and Casablanca, that depend directly on the Internet. 

• E-mail and Web "surfing," serve as important sources of information exchange and idea generation for the private sector.

• The vast majority of those businesses with Web sites used their sites exclusively for "brochureware," or marketing purposes.

• Generating two-way communication through the use of e-mail or live Internet links on the company's Web site, engaging in electronic transactions over the Internet, or linking the site to back-office operations is still relatively rare in Morocco.

Electronic commerce in Moroccan industrial development:

There are several sectors important to Moroccan industrial development where electronic commerce is becoming more prevalent in global relationships.

• Allows Moroccan textile mills to communicate directly with internationally based buyers of wholesale fabrics. The European Union, for example, is launching Texconnect, an EDI/Web EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) interface to allow smooth communication for all companies in the textile supply chain.

• Serves as an important vehicle for the distribution of brochure-ware (information, photographs, video clips, etc.) to potential tourists planning a vacation in Morocco.   

• serves as an important distribution channel for software, allowing the companies to bypass Africa's physical infrastructure challenges.

• Helps both farmers and the government better plan for these climate changes. In the United States, for example, a Weekly Weather and Crop Bulletin-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Conclusion:

For the developing country such as Morocco, electronic commerce provides the opportunity to leap forward to the next stage of economic development.  The government and the private sector needs to work together to strengthen the telecommunications, financial infrastructure, governance, distribution, and delivery. As of today, the country still in its infancy stages with the electronic commerce. It will need to recognize the importance of the knowledge, information, and the use of technology instead of resource endowments, manufacturing, and agricultural economy.

Country Background

Telecommunications Infrastructure

Industrial Production

Internet Diffusion

Electronic Commerce

Hardware Manufacturing

Software Development

IT Labor Market

IT Geographic

Government policies

Analysis: IT strength/Weakness

Analysis: IT Impacts on Business

Reference

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