Several structural projects were launched Saturday with the aim to open up the region of Anefgou, Khenifra province, one of Morocco's poorest localities that perches amid the Middle Atlas mountains, and whose inhabitants have suffered for a long time from exclusion and want.
 
     As a first step in the venture, two conventions amounting to USD 67Mn were signed with the north African country's major telecom operators, Maroc Telecom and Medi Telecom, to provide phone and Internet coverage to these rural areas.

    Over 1,900 inhabitants in the region will have access to phone and Internet connections, according to this convention, whose signing ceremony was chaired by king Mohammed VI, and which has a minimum duration of ten years as of the activation of the equipment.

    There is already a project to provide network coverage to rural areas provides for the connection of 9,263 localities by 2011.

    This move is meant to be a platform for a large-scale project aimed at bridging the digital gap in these regions, by targeting about a million inhabitants, who comprise 17% of the country’s overall rural population.

    A second convention was signed between the ministries of the Interior and of Equipment to build a 65-km-long road between the regions of Anemzi and Imilchil through Anefgou for a budget of USD 25.3Mn.

    The government has devised a plan to construct 384.4 km in the region of Khenifra between 2006 and 2012 for about USD 37.4Mn.

    The monarch also enquired about several social projects aimed to provide better services to the inhabitants of Anefgou, which has greatly suffered especially during last year’s winter.

    The projects include mainly emergency measures to face the harsh weather conditions. They will profit some 935 douars (small rural localities) in 19 provinces.

    To this end, the government has set up intervention units and medical teams, and ordered measures to develop a stock of medicaments, in addition to the generalization of wireless communication, and the construction of landing fields for helicopters.

    The sovereign subsequently laid the foundation stone of a mosque that will be built in Anefgou at the personal expenses of the monarch.