Announcement of a World Bank Loan to Morocco for The Environmental Management Project on September 14, 1993

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A. * Telephone: (202) 477-1234 BANK NEWS RELEASE NO. 94/16 Contact: Abdallah Bouhabib Tel: (202) 473-4784 Morocco Environmental Management Project The following is information on a project approved by the World Bank's Board. DATE: September 14, 1993 WORLD BANK GROUP SUPPORT: World Bank loan: $6.0 million. The World Bank loan is for 20 years, including five years of grace, with a variable interest rate, currently 7.43 percent, linked to the cost of the Bank's borrowings. It also carries an annual commitment charge of 0.25 percent on the undisbursed balance. TOTAL COST: $10.8 million OTHER PROPOSED FINANCING: Government of Morocco: $4.8 million IMPLEMENTING AGENCY: Ministry of the Interior ESTIMATED COMPLETION DATE: 1998 PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The objective of the Environmental Management Project is to assist the government in strengthening its institutional and regulatory framework for managing environmental protection. The project will define the elements for, and initiate the process of, development of the necessary environmental laws and institutions. The project will (a) provide internation- al and local consultants for two hundred seventy-two man-months; (b) organize and implement thirty-three technical and specialized workshops for six hundred to eight hundred professionals from the sector ministries, local government, NGOs, and private and public sector consulting and industrial firms; (c) provide training abroad to twenty-six professionals in various specialized environmental fields; (d) finance a total of six policy, economic, financial, and legal studies; and (e) purchase a total of $1.2 million worth of computer hardware and software, vehicles, office equipment and supplies, audio-visual materials, computer maintenance, and access to international databases. - 2 - in the preparation of a National Environmental Strategy and action plan; (f) a poverty alleviation component (US$0.4 million) which will finance consultant services and computer equipment for the development and implementation of a social sector information system to measure living standards and other basic social indicators, and, in conjunction with USAID the preparation and comple- tion of institutional reviews in selected social sector ministries which will provide the basis for the government's 1994-98 Poverty Alleviation Strategy; and (g) a project implementation component (US$0.1 million) which will finance procurement staff and computer and office equipment, as needed, to support the existing project coordination unit.