King Mohammed starts official visit to Italy

King Mohammed VI flew this Tuesday to Italy for a three-day official visit in quest of stronger cooperation with the European nation.

The king will confer with the Italian president, the prime minister as well as with the Senate speaker, a statement by the Ministry of the Royal Household, Protocol and Chancellery said.

King Mohammed VI will also meet Pope Jean Paul II at the Holy See, the statement said.

The royal visit is expected to give new momentum to economic cooperation which is still short of the centuries-old political relations binding the two countries.

Morocco and Italy are bound by a cooperation and friendship treaty, signed in 1991.

According to the Italian statistics institute, Italy's exports to Morocco in 1998 totaled 1.09 trillion liras compared to 965 billion a year before, i.e. an increase of 13.85%. The European country's imports from the kingdom dropped by 6.55% going down from 703 billion liras in 1997 to 643 billion liras in 1998.

Available figures for the period running from January to November 1999, show that Italian exports to Morocco were worth 1.03 trillion Liras while imports stood at 656 billion.

Italy is Morocco's 5th or 6th trade partner (according to years), behind France, Spain, the United States, and alternately Germany and Great Britain, holding between 5 and 7% of the Moroccan market.

Only 70 small and medium sized Italian enterprises are operating in Morocco, against 800 French and 500 Spanish firms.

According to the latest available figures, the Moroccan community settled in Italy is 146,460 strong, and under the new Italian law on immigration-- in force since March 15, 2000-- Italy will open in the course of the current year gates to 63,000 legal emigrants, including 3,000 Moroccans.