Moroccan prime minister to visit Portugal Friday

Moroccan prime minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi is to pay an official visit to Portugal next Friday and Saturday, it was officially announced in Rabat on Monday.

Youssoufi, who will be accompanied by a large delegation, will co-chair with his Portuguese peer Antonio Guterres the 4th high-level Moroccan-Portuguese meeting.

The Moroccan-Portuguese high-level annual meeting is held alternately in Rabat and Lisbon and aims to shore up the traditional and privileged ties binding the two countries.

The meeting is instituted by the friendship, neighborliness and cooperation treaty, concluded by the two countries in 1994 to enhance bilateral relations in all fields.

This will be Youssoufi's second visit to Portugal since he was appointed Prime minister last spring. Actually, his first visit abroad as Prime minister took him to Portugal on March 31, 1998, where he conferred with Guterres on ways to enhance Moroccan-Portuguese economic cooperation.

According to figures released by "La Banque Marocaine du Commerce Exterieur" (BMCE) last summer, trade exchanges between Morocco and Portugal stood in 1997 at over 1 billion dirhams ($1 = 9.2 DH). Morocco's exports to Portugal were worth 413.14 million DH while imports stood at 684.71 million.

Iron, steel, synthetic fibers, wood, chemical products, plastic goods, paper and machinery are the major goods that Portugal exports to Morocco. Moroccan exports are made up of fish, phosphoric acid, tires, cork, fertilizers, citrus fruits, synthetic fabrics, phosphates and cotton threads.

Bilateral trade is still marginal in each country's external trade, since Portugal is Morocco's 16th client and 24th supplier.

Regarding investments, Portugal ranks, for the first time, among the ten major foreign investors in the kingdom. This progression is mainly due to the purchase by Portuguese group "Cimpor" of a cement plan in Temara, few Km south of Rabat.