Morocco hosts conference on energy in Sahel-Sahara countries
Regional-Morocco, Economics, 2/8/2002

Casablanca is playing host February 7-8 to a conference on energy and natural resources in the Community of Sahel-Saharian States (CEN-SAD).

Opening the conference Thursday, Moroccan Premier, Abderrahmane Youssouf, stressed the need to involve private operators in the energy sector and said the promotion of investment in this sector requires the setting up of a legal and organizational frame and the adoption of measures strengthening investors' trust and preserving the States interests.

The Prime Minister said the energy sector contribution to the economy of the regional African group will increase thanks to the promising oil and gas prospects in some countries of the region and the carrying on of the reforms, mainly at the level of economy liberalization. He also surveyed Morocco's policies in matters of mining, electrification, oil refining and oil prospecting. He said in this respect that the new code of hydrocarbons adopted by Morocco has started attracting numerous investors in oil prospecting and that the use of natural gas and renewable energies will in the mid-term diversify energy resources. By 2010, he said, renewable energies will contribute 10 percent to Morocco's energy consumption.

He also dealt with the environment friendly measures adopted by Morocco such as promotion of renewable energies, improvement of fuel quality and decrease of use of wood as an energy source.

The CEN-SAD Secretary General on his part surveyed the group's efforts to adopt common policies promoting public and private investments in the agricultural, industrial, energy, social and cultural sectors, and to lower progressively all obstacles to exchanges, circulation of persons, goods and capital. The final goal sought is to establish the Economic Union stipulated in the treaty setting up the CEN-SAD, he said, insisting that this Union is the only way to salvation for the populations of the region in the dawn of this third millennium. The CEN-SAD space, he said, is today the largest regional market in Africa with more than 320 million consumers. He said that the CEN-SAD countries are discussing the suppression of Tariff and non-tariff obstacles that hinder trade in the region and that an agreement on investments promotion will be shortly signed in the frame of group.

CEN-SAD musters 16 member countries, namely Libya, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Morocco, Djibouti, Eritrea, Gambia, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic and Somalia. It was established in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, in February 1998 for the promotion of peace and stability as well as for rural, social and economic development of the whole region.

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