German officials vow to examine Moroccan debt reconversion

Moroccan Secretary of State for Cooperation Aicha Belarbi said Monday that German authorities have promised to ponder on the possibilities of swapping into investments Moroccan debts that absorb over one third of its resources.

The official, who paid a two-day working visit to Germany, said Germany has developed a new approach to handling indebtedness, consisting of writing off the debts of the poorest countries.

She explained that the Moroccan idea to reconvert debts into investments is not part of the German approach, but German authorities have promised to think it over.

Belarbi held meetings with the German federal minister of cooperation and development, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, minister in charge of foreign affairs, Von Ploetz, and executives from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.

Germany has developed a plan to alleviate the debt of the poorest countries, to be submitted to the upcoming G-8 summit next June in Cologne.

She said that her talks in Germany were very fruitful as it was an opportunity to expound the major changes adopted in Morocco and called German investors to be more present in the country.