Meeting on investments in Maghreb

The 5 Plus 5 conference of foreign ministers of the cooperation process in the west Mediterranean meeting in Lisbon on Friday decided to hold a meeting in Morocco on the promotion of investments in the Maghreb.

The meeting will revive a dialogue that stopped five years ago between the five Maghreban countries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Mauritania) and the five Mediterranean countries member of the European Union (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy and Malta).

The meeting on investments will be held annually alternately in the north and south Mediterranean banks.

Sources close to the conference said the second meeting on investments in the Maghreb will be held in 2002 in Algeria or Libya.

The Lisbon conference also stressed the importance of strategic dialogue between Europe and the Maghreb and agreed on launching initiatives aimed at accelerating the dynamics of regional integration and promote foreign investments in the Maghreb.

In addition to the meeting projected in Morocco, the two parties decided to convene a conference in Tunis on the promotion of south-south and north-south trade exchanges.

Meetings between the Mediterranean two shores' searchers and intellectuals are also contemplated.