El FOSFATO de Marruecos (parte V)

Morocco, meanwhile, offers subsidies, tax credits, and land grants to settlers, a policy that has drawn comparisons to Israel. For its part, the U.S., in addition to needing the phosphate, sees Morocco as an ally in the war against terrorism. Last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reaffirmed U.S. support for Morocco's plan of "limited autonomy" for the territory, which stops short of the independence demanded by the Polisario.
To his own people, at least, the King is generous, and the planned Mine Verte is but one display of the country's growing wealth. In January, OCP Chief Executive Officer Mostafa Terrab stood with the King and announced another green project in Benguerir, also a mining town on the Plateau des Phosphates. The planned city's buildings will be LEED-certified, and its roads will hum with electric buses and bikes in designated lanes. At its heart will be the new Mohammed VI Polytechnic University.
Béatrice Montagnier finished her Mine Verte consulting contract last year, but her employer, Horwath, has a small office in Rabat and is working on other projects. The King opened the Royal Mansour Marrakech hotel this year, with private riads—the traditional style of home with a courtyard and garden—going for $2,200 per night. For Khouribga, Montagnier has settled on three stars for the hotel, but says the final room tally awaits approval by OCP. Architects put the total price on the Mine Verte at €665 million ($937 million).
Khouribga's active mines begin about 6 miles south of the proposed museum, where powdery ravines pass underneath the bridges of the N11 highway. Out there, Founoun Mohammed, 48, is a subcontractor overseeing the first stages of a pipeline which will deliver phosphate in slurry form from Khouribga to the port of Jorf Lasfar south of Casablanca, 146 miles away. In jeans, an orange safety vest, and a matching helmet, he points out the path trucks loaded with rock take from the mine up to the plant where concentrated phosphate is separated from the rock. In a few years the phosphate will go straight into the pipeline to be processed by coastal fertilizer factories serving Brazil, India, and Pakistan.
Mohammed seems to embody the confidence of a country that finds itself on a gold mine. After work he settles down at the back of a favorite restaurant and talks business over seafood paella. A bottle of Moroccan wine is not to his liking, and he orders a French red for the table. "Khouribga is the world capital of phosphates," he says, "but we want to use tourism to make it something more. People will come from Europe, the United States, everywhere to see Khouribga. It will raise the level of the city." He is in high spirits and pours a glass of wine for the waiter, who tosses it back in a single gulp. Mohammed says he loves his country: He is safe and has a good job, what else can he ask for? "The King," he says, "is a gentleman."

fuente:  http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/10_46/b4203080895976_page_5.htm