MOROCCO TO INVEST $445 MLN IN 1999 ON ELECTRICITY
Date: 20-May-99
Country: Moroco
ONE's chairman Driss Benhima told a recent board meeting that the company has earmarked 4,363 million dirhams ($445 million) to meet Morocco's rising demand for electricity, including in remote rural areas.
A copy of the report on the board meeting was made available to Reuters on Wednesday.
Benhima said that among ONE's top priorities was extending power networks to an average 1,500 villages this year compared with 1,000 villages in 1998.
ONE also plans to expand its grid to Smara, the spiritual city of Western Sahara by the year 2000 and to Dakhla, the main port town on the Atlantic coast of the former Spanish colony, he added in the report.
The investment plan also covers the building of a wind power farm in the northern province of Tetouan and electricity interconnection with Spain, the report said.
ONE showed a net profit of 174 million dirhams in 1998 compared with a loss of 423 million dirhams in the previous year, the report said.
Turnover rose to 9,875 million dirhams in 1998, up from 9,729 million in the previous year, it added.
Morocco's total power output rose 6.7 percent to 12,216 gigawatt hours in 1998 compared with the previous year, it said.
