Moroccan-Saudi accords must be updated, Moroccan minister says

Moroccan Minister of Economy and Finance Fathallah Oualalou, who is on a visit to Saudi Arabia at the head of a large business delegation, stressed the need to update Moroccan-Saudi cooperation accords, some of which are 30 years old.

Oualalou made the statement during a conference organized in Jeddah on Thursday by the Jeddah Chamber of Trade and Industry.

He also underlined the need to overcome the traditional framework of bilateral economic cooperation and to adapt the existing accords to the new economic reality, after conducting thorough studies on the various aspects of bilateral cooperation.

The two countries must endeavor to set up free trade areas and explore new prospects to diversify their trade exchanges that are now limited to oil and phosphates, Oualalou said describing current economic relations as "weak" compared to the two countries' potentials. These relations, he said, are not up to the firm ties of friendship existing between the two countries which have their weight at the Arab and regional levels.

Oualalou expressed the wish that the Saudi development fund in Morocco, which has frozen its activities since 1989, would resume its activities and backing to the development projects jointly initiated by Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

He also spoke of the Saudi-Moroccan investment company that was set up in 1992, voicing Morocco's determination to give a new momentum to this company through increasing its capital to enable it fulfil its goals, mainly attracting investments and pouring them in sound projects and upgrading trade exchanges and contacts between the two countries' businessmen.

The Saudi-Moroccan company operates in several vital sectors, including electric industries, transport, building, agribusiness and finance.

The Moroccan delegation, which is touring the six countries forming the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday and conferred with several Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz and ministers of foreign affairs, of economy and finance and of trade.

Both sides agreed to increase investments, foster contacts between the two countries' private sectors, lower the obstacles hampering the development of trade exchange and promote air and sea links.