Moroccan-Pakistani high joint commission meets in September in Rabat
Morocco-Pakistan, Politics, 4/18/2001

The Moroccan-Pakistani high joint commission will hold a meeting next September in Rabat.

The announcement was made during a meeting here between visiting Moroccan Prime Minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, and Pakistani minister of trade, Abdul Razak Dawood.

The commission, set up under an accord signed in Islamabad Monday, will follow up bilateral relations and implementation of cooperation accords concluded by the two countries.

The Youssoufi-Dawood talks also covered ways of promoting cooperation in the sector of phosphates through the reactivation of the joint project to build a phosphates processing plant in Pakistan.

The two sides also probed means of enhancing cooperation in the sectors of textile, tourism and fisheries.

Morocco and Pakistan signed on Monday five cooperation agreements meant to enhance relations between the two countries in various areas.

Besides the agreement setting up a joint cooperation commission, the two sides set up a commission for political consultation between the two countries' foreign departments and signed three other agreements related to the promotion and protection of investments, to cooperation in the sector of tourism, and to cooperation in the sector of merchant navy.

The Pakistani minister of trade on Monday held a meeting with Moroccan minister of Commerce, Industry, Energy and Mines, Mustapha Mansouri, on ways and means to further promote bilateral and economic cooperation between the two brotherly countries.

Dawood considered that formalizing agreements on Protection of Investment in the two countries as well as formation of the Morocco-Pakistan Joint Commission would usher in closer liaison and cooperation and create opportunities for boosting investment and trade.

Dawood informed his Moroccan counterpart about the visit he is planning to pay to Morocco at the head of a broad

spectrum of Pakistani businessmen, including operators representing surgical instruments, cutlery, sports goods, textiles, leather, engineering and pharmaceutical sector.

Mansouri said there is enormous scope for Pakistani investors in electronics, telecommunication, tourism industry and construction business and recalled that Morocco offers concessions and incentives to foreign investors in these industries.

The two Ministers also discussed the possibility of joint ventures in fertilizer, fish canning, fruit processing, textile industry etc.

The two sides considered warehousing facility in Morocco to help facilitate re-export of Pakistani products to Europe and Africa.

Mansouri deplored the weak economic relations between the two countries, imputing the situation to a communication deficit and to the fact that Morocco is too much Europe-oriented, neglecting important markets such as that of Pakistan with 150 million souls.

Morocco and Pakistan are bound by several cooperation accords, including a trade agreement that was signed in 1962, but the volume of their exchanges is still rather low.

Pakistan ranks 68th among Morocco's suppliers and 32d among its clients. It imports from the kingdom natural and chemical fertilizers, phosphates, pneumatics and lead. Morocco's imports from the Asian country are made up of fabric, synthetic fibers, cotton, leather, skins and cotton thread.

In 1999, the global volume of exchanges was worth some 500 million DH (about $ 50 million).

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