UNESCO chief meets Moroccan officials
Morocco, Politics, 7/13/2001

Director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO/based in Paris), Koichi Matsuura, who started on Wednesday a four-day official visit to Morocco, on Thursday held a series of meetings with Moroccan officials.

Matsuura, who is visiting Morocco for the second time since he took office in 1999, met with prime minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, who hailed the UNESCO decision to open an office in Morocco.

The head of the Moroccan government also praised the U0NESCO efforts to protect the human and cultural legacy of the city of AL-Quds and called for more support to reform education and training and fight illiteracy.

On his part, higher education, executive training and scientific training minister, Najib Zerouali, said the international community needs an international legislation on water, arguing that bilateral accords do not settle conflicts between countries over water resources. He went on that 67% of Arab population will run short of water in the coming years. Matsuura announced that the UNESCO will hold in 2003 in Kyoto (Japan) an international forum to present the first world forum on water.

Other topics debated include cultural diversity and the promotion of a peace and non-violence culture among the world children.

A meeting with culture and communication minister, Mohamed Achaari, surveyed efforts to preserve cultural legacy and diversity.

The Moroccan minister called UNESCO to contribute in protecting the African civilization.

The UNESCO chief took part in the closing session of an international colloquy on "inter-civilizations dialogue," held in Rabat this July 10-12 by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO/based in Rabat).

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