Rabat – Moroccan and French actors from different sectors have reactivated the Bordeaux-Aquitaine-Maroc association during a ceremony held Friday in Bordeaux, with the group set to support a new phase of cooperation between Morocco and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region.
The association was created in 1981 under the initiative of its founding president, Michel Laurent, a former elected official in Bordeaux. Its reactivation seeks to build on more than four decades of ties and renew its work around human, cultural, economic and social relations between Bordeaux, its region and Morocco.
Mohammed Boukhaled, the association’s current president, called for the involvement of economic, institutional, university, cultural and community actors to turn the association’s work into concrete projects benefiting both territories.
Boukhaled, a former senior executive at major financial institutions and an entrepreneur in the digital sector, also stressed the need to develop the association as a strategic project serving institutions in Aquitaine and Morocco.
The Moroccan Consul General in Bordeaux, Nouzha Sahel, welcomed the association’s reactivation. She described it as a “living heritage of relations between Bordeaux and Morocco” and said its history provides a valuable foundation for developing new initiatives.
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Sahel also called for territorial, economic, academic and cultural cooperation to play a greater role in strengthening ties between Morocco and Nouvelle-Aquitaine. She urged the mobilization of Moroccan and Franco-Moroccan skills, including entrepreneurs, academics and researchers, as a link between the two countries.
Michel Laurent, who attended the ceremony as BAM’s honorary president, stressed the need to move beyond symbolic exchanges and develop concrete and lasting initiatives, particularly in the cultural and economic fields.
The reactivation comes as relations between Morocco and French territories continue to expand and diversify, with Nouvelle-Aquitaine offering cooperation opportunities in several areas.
According to the initiative’s organizers, potential areas include urban planning, culture and the adaptation of territories to climate change. Educational and university exchanges are also among the proposed areas of cooperation, alongside partnerships between companies.
The association’s renewed activity therefore brings together several fields, from business and higher education to culture and territorial development. Its organizers aim to use these connections to support practical cooperation between Moroccan and French institutions and actors in the region.
