Morocco, Belgium Work Towards Decentralization

Rabat – Morocco’s Casablanca-Settat region is set to coordinate with Wallonia, the Francophone region of southern Belgium, to increase cooperation on decentralization.

The president of the Casablanca-Settat region council, Mustapha Bakkoury, held talks with Frederic Daerden, the vice-president of Wallonia’s government, on Tuesday, January 28, in Brussels, Belgium.

Daerden is also the minister of the budget, civil service, and equal opportunities in the government of Wallonia, formally known as the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.

The meeting was part of the implementation and monitoring of the framework cooperation agreement between the Casablanca-Settat region and Wallonia, signed 1.5 years ago.

The meeting posed an opportunity for the parties to discuss cooperation in administrative capacity-building and in the training of elected officials and executives in the Casablanca-Settat region.

The parties have also agreed to define a program of collaboration and exchange in the coming days.

Daerden praised the promising prospects for cooperation between Wallonia and the Moroccan region.

“There are many possible areas of cooperation, including education, training, and the civil service,” he noted to Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).

Daerden stressed that coordinating towards advanced regionalization is an opportunity for the Moroccan region’s governing body to better meet the needs and expectations of its citizens.

2020 action plan

Bakkoury then traveled to Namur, a city in Wallonia, to meet with the province’s Minister-President Elio Di Rupo.

The two parties signed an agreement committing to a 2020 action plan for cooperation.

The agreement commits both parties to concentrate their efforts in training and socio-professional integration, the food industry, sustainable development, renewable energy, and advanced regionalization.

Bakkoury affirmed that the agreement is the extension of an initiative towards successful regional cooperation.

In a statement to MAP, Di Rupo stressed, “This agreement is of great interest for both Morocco and Belgium and the regions of Casablanca-Settat and Wallonia.”

“This is an effective regional diplomacy that we maintain and strengthen in the service of both regions and two countries,” Di Rupo added.

Morocco’s ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg, Mohamed Ameur, attended the signing ceremony, along with Morocco’s ambassador to the European Union, Ahmed Rahhou, and the general delegate of Wallonia–Brussels in Rabat, Motonobu Kasajima.