President Wade calls Moroccan businessmen to invest in Senegal
Morocco-Senegal, Economics, 6/1/2000

President Abdoulay Wade of Senegal has called Moroccan economic operators to invest in his country which, he said, provides huge partnership opportunities.

The call was launched at a meeting in Rabat Wednesday between President Wade and Moroccan businessmen.

The Senegalese head of state told economic operators that his country has just set up an investment agency and that an economic and financial panel has been set up at the presidency to ease partnership relations in a climate of transparency.

Investors will be provided with all guarantees, he insisted.

He said Senegal, which plays a prominent role within the West African economic and monetary union, can serve as a springboard for Moroccan wishing to operate in the union's space. "Senegal and the union can be an outlet for Morocco," he said.

He pledged that as soon as he is back to Dakar, he will conduct the necessary moves to speed up the signing of the projected accord between Morocco and the West-African economic and monetary Union to overcome the obstacles related to the Dirham-CFA franc convertibility.

In the first three-quarters of 1999, Morocco's exports to Senegal totaled $ 12.4 million, a 42.6 % increase compared to the same period of the preceding year. Moroccan imports stood at a mere $ 420,000, a slump of 56.6 %, the Moroccan Change Office figures show.

President Wade who started on Monday a three-day official visit to Morocco- his first ever official visit to a foreign country-held two rounds of talks in Marrakesh on Monday and Tuesday with King Mohammed VI and co-chaired with the sovereign over a working session attended by the two countries' delegations.

He equally met the Moroccan Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi and the speakers of the two houses of the Moroccan parliament.

At all these meetings, President Wade voiced the wish to see the two countries raise the level of economic and financial cooperation to the standards of excellent friendship and brotherly relations between the two people making of Dakar and Rabat a model cooperation axis for the African continent.

Morocco has a role to play in the battle for economic development in Senegal, he said, underscoring the need for wider trade flows.

After Marrakesh and Rabat, President Wade and his party-- including foreign affairs minister Sheikh Tidiane Gadio, family and solidarity minister Aminata Tall and several advisers-flew to kingdom's spiritual capital, Fez, where he is to visit the historical and tourism sites.

President Wade will also perform pilgrimage at the Zaouia of Sidi Ahmed Tidjani, founder of the Tidjane confraternity who passed away in 1852 and who is buried in Fez.

Tidjane cultural days are held every year in Senegal in the memory of Sidi Ahmed Tidjani and the kings of the Alaouite dynasty have always backed religious confraternities and particularly the Tidjane Tarika, whose founder Sidi Ahmed Tidjani spread the sufism philosophy throughout Africa.

Sidi Ahmed Tidjani memorized the Koran at an early age and traveled a lot across the continent before he settled in Fez wherefrom he continued to spread the principles of the tarika tidjani which advocates the consolidation of faith, peace, justice and unity of Muslims.

Previous Stories:
  Senegalese minister of fisheries and maritime transport in Morocco   (7/14/1999)
  Morocco, Senegal sign oil cooperation accord   (7/5/1999)
  Morocco, Senegal sign cooperation accords   (5/31/1999)

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