Official calls Americans to participate in Morocco's development process
Morocco-USA, Economics, 1/19/2000

Moroccan minister of economy and finance, Fathallah Oualalou, called Americans to get more involved in Morocco's development process and to back its efforts to open its economy onto the world.

Oualalou launched the call at a meeting he held here Monday with a delegation of American Congress staffers, led by congressman Howard Coble.

Oualalou, who underlined the Kingdom's proximity to both Europe and the United States, stressed the need to promote US investments in Morocco and to upgrade trade exchange, saying Morocco is ready for more overtures as it was with Europe in the frame of the association accord.

Answering Coble, who was wondering on Morocco's economic strategy in the context of the association accord with Europe on the one hand and on means to upgrade relations with the US on the other, Oualalou said Morocco, which has adopted the multiparty system on the economic and political levels, will continue to promote private enterprise and encourage foreign investments. Morocco, he added, will promote its internal market and its relations with the rest of the world. The association accord which involves all Mediterranean countries rules relations that are surely important for Morocco but not exclusive.

Moroccan-US relations can be upgraded in the framework of a privileged economic cooperation that will as an instance ease Moroccan agricultural products' access to the US market and increase US investments in Morocco to back Morocco's exports to both Europe and the United States. Tourism is another promising sector for cooperation between, the two countries, he said.

Morocco and the US are bound by longstanding excellent relations and have converging standpoints on major international issues, Oualalou said, underlining Morocco's key role in the Middle East peace process.

The US delegation paid a two-day information visit to Laayoune over the weekend for talks with Moroccan local authorities, ambassador in charge of coordination with MINURSO, Mohamed Loulichki, and special representative of the U.N secretary general for the Sahara, William Eagleton and conferred in Rabat with several cabinet members, including Premier Abderrahmane Youssoufi.

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