Saudi Arabia and Morocco determined to enhance economic relations

Morocco and Saudi Arabia renewed on Wednesday in Riyadh their resolve to upgrade trade exchanges and economic cooperation.

The two states expressed the resolve on the occasion of the visit of a Moroccan trade mission which arrived Tuesday in Riyadh part of a gulf tour to give new momentum to commercial partnership with Gulf states.

Head of the Moroccan delegation, minister of economy and finance, Fathallah Oualalou, met Wednesday with several Saudi officials, including heir apparent Prince Abdullah Ben Abdelaziz, Saudi ministers of finance and economy, Ibrahim Al-Asaf and of commerce, Ousama Ben Jaaraf Ben Brahim Faqih.

Talks focused on ways of intensifying and diversifying economic and commercial cooperation between the two countries.The Moroccan and Saudi officials agreed to increase investments, foster contacts between the two states' private sectors, lower all obstacles hampering the development of trade exchanges and enhance air-sea links.

Oualalou, who is accompanied by a large business delegation, is also scheduled to meet with director of the Jeddah-based Islamic development Bank, Ahmed Mohammed Ali, to discuss the bank's investment in Morocco's development projects.

To give a new impetus to Moroccan-Saudi partnership in all sectors, the Moroccan-Saudi business council held Wednesday a meeting in Riyadh to identify business opportunities offered in the two countries mainly in the fields of agriculture, fishing, energy, handicraft, textile and other industrial sectors.

Trade exchanges between Morocco and saudi Arabia which are dominated by oil and phosphates products reached in 1997 around $ 600 Million.