Morocco and Finland sign investment protection agreement

Morocco and Finland signed in Rabat Monday an agreement for the promotion and protection of investments and an addendum to a convention concluded in 1973 on non-double taxation.

The documents were initialed on the Moroccan side by Fathallah Oualalou, minister of economy, finance, privatization and tourism, and visiting Finnish external trade minister, Kimmo Sasi.

The two officials underscored the importance of the agreements in developing partnership between Moroccan and Finnish businessmen and agreed to increase governmental contacts to level down obstacles hindering investments and define new financing tools for joint projects.

Sasi is leading a 32-member business delegation.

On the same day, the Finnish minister met Morocco's premier, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, and industry, trade, energy and mining minister, Mustapha Mansouri.

Bilateral cooperation between the two countries is still limited with only the telecoms Nokia company present in the kingdom and 4 tour operators settled in the tourist resort city of Agadir. Moroccan-Finnish trade almost doubled between 1999 and 2000, going up from 650 million DH to 1.2 billion DH.

Morocco imports from the Nordic country industrial equipment, receivers and transmitters, animal unprocessed products and paper while citrus fruits make up the bulk of its exports to Finland.