Rabat hosts Maghreban colloquy on population

Rabat is playing host this Dec.24-26 to the 10th colloquy on population and rural development in the Maghreb.

The colloquy, attended by some forty searchers from Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia, is debating several issues related to population and development, rural development-oriented social policies, the crisis in the rural world, its origin and impact and how Maghreban societies (state, ngos, civil society) are dealing with the crisis.

Participants will also trade experience on moves by their respective countries to promote the rural world.

In an opening address, Moroccan minister of economic forecasts and planning, Abdelhamid Aouad, said issues related to population and development are on top of the concerns of the Moroccan government, whose action in the matters evolves around the promotion of the rural world, the elaboration of a population policy and the adoption of a strategy of struggle against poverty.

He pointed out that the improvement of living standards necessarily goes through economic growth and a more rational and more balanced distribution of a country's wealth among all its regions and all its social layers.