Moroccan premier starts African tour on Saturday

Moroccan Prime Minister Abderrahmane Youssoufi will start on Saturday a seven-day tour of Africa that will take him to Senegal, Guinea, Cote D'Ivoire, Gabon and Burkina Faso.

Youssoufi will be accompanied mainly by the ministers of commerce, industry and handicraft, of mining, of youth and sports and of fisheries.

A group of economic operators and journalists will also be part of the delegation. Youssoufi will be received by the heads of state of the visited countries and will hold talks with political and business leaders.

The African tour is to be crowned by the signing of several cooperation accords and conventions in the fields of investments, fisheries, trade and agriculture.

In Dakar, the first leg of Youssoufi's African tour, officials hope that the visit will reactivate the various bilateral cooperation accords that cover almost all fields.

The Senegalese officials intend to seize the opportunity of Youssoufi's visit to relaunch a 1996 project to set up a sea line between Dakar and Casablanca to intensify trade exchange. The absence of a maritime link hinders efforts to develop trade between Morocco and Senegal, Senegalese officials say.

In 1997, trade exchanges between Senegal and Morocco did not exceed 124.5 million dirhams ($1 = 9.9 DH).

Senegal also wishes to set up with Morocco a joint bank that will back up small and medium enterprises and facilitate transactions between economic operators.

The creation of a bilateral development agency is another objective dear to the Senegalese. The agency is seen as a tool to carry out heavy infrastructure projects.