Moroccan-Italian joint working group set up

Morocco and Italy decided to set up a joint working group to give a new momentum to economic cooperation.

The announcement was made in Rabat Tuesday by visiting Italian Minister of Foreign Trade Piero Fassino at the end of a meeting with Premier Abderrahmane Youssoufi.

Fassino told reporters the group will hold periodical meetings to promote partnership between enterprises and to foster bilateral cooperation.

Touching on Moroccan-Italian relations that he described as "excellent," he said Italy is determined to promote these relations and to make of the kingdom a privileged partner.

Italy, he added, is following with "hope, sympathy and interest the political evolution in Morocco" and, "It is in this new context that we want to work so that Italy becomes Morocco's privileged partner."

He said his own trip to Rabat and the visit the Italian premier is projecting to pay to Morocco are meant to back the ongoing changes in the North African country.

The Italian official started on Tuesday a two-day official visit at the head of a 90-member business delegation.