Morocco and France sign a number of agreements
During the visit of French Minister of Economy and Finance Dominique Strauss-Kahn to Morocco, he signed an agreement with his Moroccan counterpart Idris Gato through which the Moroccan debts to France worth 600 million francs were settled.
France will use these debts to set up investment projects in Tunisia. French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin is also scheduled to visit Morocco end of next month in order to boost the two countries' relations.
An initial agreement was reached to settle the Moroccan debts under the right wing government of Alan Jupe which included 1 billion francs in debts, but the French legislative election stopped the deal.
The Moroccan debts to France are $3.2 billion second most after the World Bank, to which Morocco's debts are $7 million. Paris expressed its desire to settle the debts in order to increase the volume of its investments in Morocco and to benefit from the Moroccan free economy program by buying shares in the Tunisian state-owned companies put up for sale in the privatization program. On top of these companies come the communication and infrastructure companies. 450 French companies have branches in Morocco, 50 companies of which moved to settle permanently in Morocco.
France is the biggest importer from Morocco as it receives 21 % of the Moroccan total exports while Morocco imports 27 % of the French exports. Morocco occupies the 19th place in the list of importers from France and the second partner after China outside the Economic and Trade Development Organization.
Commentators believe that France lost many of its strong positions in Morocco during the past five years for other European and Asian countries. France had a weak share in the privatization plans as its share is worth $1.2 billion. France regained some of its positions through implementing some water and electricity projects in Casablanca worth of $ 3 billion after it lost the electricity deal in Al Garf Al Asfar area worth of $ 1.6 billion.
It is expected that using some of the debts to regain some of the old position of France in Morocco will increase the French existence in the North African region in the face of the US and Asian companies.
Ten years ago Paris was in control of the external trade of Morocco and Tunisia but this control started to get weaker till it reached 25 % of the total external trade of these countries. France offers Morocco and Tunisia an annual support worth of 1 billion francs to assist the two countries to fix their budget deficit.