El Foro Empresarial Marroquí-Saudí consolida la relación entre ambos países
Morocco and Saudi Arabia are at the peak of their economic cooperation. Both countries continue to increase their trade volume and the good data confirm that this partnership wants to go further. The ASMEX (Moroccan Association of Exporters) hosted an event regarding the Moroccan-Saudi Business Forum, between businessmen from both nations, and has identified the Saudi Kingdom as a good partner to develop and boost exports.
The conference held in Casablanca brought together a delegation of 25 Saudi businessmen among several Moroccan exporters. In addition to exports, the meeting looked at ways to boost the investment sector and value creation. During the meeting, a special focus was placed on developing SMEs - small and medium-sized enterprises - which are mainly responsible for exports.
ASMEX has set Saudi Arabia as its main target to develop the Alawi economy, considering this Kingdom as the main economic power in the Middle East. The organisation is working to strengthen relations between the two sides, mainly by developing trade between the two territories.
"There are many areas in which our two countries can develop economic and/or trade partnerships and I am really frustrated to see the amount of products that our two kingdoms import from other countries when we would benefit from exchanging them directly with each other for greater efficiency and a higher profit margin for both sides," says Hassan Sentissi, president of ASMEX, as quoted by the Moroccan daily L'Opinion.
ASMEX has long sought commercial cooperation between the two kingdoms. The same event was held a few months ago in the Saudi city of Jeddah, where the organisation managed to sign a memorandum of understanding and partnership with the Union of Saudi Arabian Chambers of Commerce. Thanks to this, ASMEX has been able to glimpse the good understanding between the two countries, reflected through the signing of major economic agreements.
Sentissi wanted to emphasise that this economic relationship is on the right track, although he wanted to highlight this deficit. According to the ASMEX president, the memorandum will be able to compensate for the dynamisation of cooperation between the two kingdoms. "The year 2021 has seen a significant increase in the volume of trade between the two countries, reaching 17 billion dirhams. In addition, Moroccan exports amounted to 768 million dirhams in 2021 against 16 billion dirhams for imports in the same year," the president noted.
ASMEX therefore wants to return to improving these trade volumes between the two kingdoms. During the meeting in Casablanca, Ali Borman El Yami, president of the Saudi Arabia-Morocco Business Council of the Federation of Saudi Chambers, was constantly pointing out the historical relations between the two countries. He congratulated the two governments for boosting this economic cooperation and stressed the importance of promoting mutual work, the development of diplomatic relations, support for investment and the creation of value for exporting SMEs.
In addition, the forum was key for both sides to find several areas of mutual cooperation. As a result, meetings and negotiations have taken place to develop a key partnership for both territories.
"We will mention in particular industry, transport and logistics, energy and renewable energy, tourism, real estate, mining and construction. The participants worked to identify partnership and investment projects aimed particularly at SMEs in order to export products and services and promote high value-added exports," ASMEX commented in a statement.
Both Morocco and Saudi Arabia have stated that, in order to further promote economic cooperation, the best they can do is the creation of a direct maritime line between the two regions. In this way, ASMEX makes it clear that current trade flows can be decongested, and new ones can be promoted to speed up trade between the two kingdoms. This is possible because, during the forum, the problems related to the transport and logistics of trade between the two countries have been solved.