Rabat – Following a visit by Moroccan diplomats to Sao Paolo last week, Brazil and Morocco have agreed to sign a “new generation” agreement in 2017 allowing both countries to give a new dimension to their economic partnership and to boost investment flows on both sides of the Atlantic.
“The signing of the Cooperation and Investment Facilitation Agreement (ACFI) will be an important step in strengthening trade between Morocco and Brazil,” stated Moroccan Ambassador to Brazil Nabil Adghoghi, detailing the outline of a visit last week to Sao Paulo. “Once ACFI is signed, the Kingdom will become the first country in North Africa to conclude an agreement of this kind with Brazil, after Mexico and Angola.”.
This visit was punctuated by a series of meetings, notably with Sao Paulo Vice-Governor Marcio França, Sao Paulo Deputy Mayor Bruno Covas, representatives of the São Paulo Federation of Industries of (FIESP) and members of the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce (CCAB).
Promotion of the tourism sector was at the center of the meeting between Adghoghi and França, who stressed the need to further promote Morocco as a tourist destination, especially since the Kingdom is visited by 30,000 to 35,000 Brazilian tourists per year.
The meeting also focused on topical issues such as the return of Morocco to the African Union and its implications for Africa, a continent at the heart of the Kingdom’s economic policy, the largest investor in West Africa and second largest investor in the whole continent.
The meeting with Sao Paulo’s vice-mayor Bruno Covas focused on investment opportunities offered by the two countries, as half of Brazilian exports come from Sao Paulo.
According to Adghoghi, these meetings highlighted the interest of various economic Sao Paulo operators in Morocco, in this case the FIESP and the Brazilian decision-makers, to build “multi-sector economic hub favoring an opening on the African and European markets” and to identify the various economic and trade aspects in need of development, giving a boost to diplomatic relations between the two countries, which go back more than 111 years.
