Morocco wooing British investments 

(MENAFN - Morocco Business News) It seems that Morocco is launching an aggressive campaign to attract British investors. The conference on investment opportunities in Morocco saw the participation of four Moroccan ministers who took the pains of traveling to the British capital, with one objective: promote the North African country.

In fact, the first annual conference on investment opportunities was held on Monday in the British capital London to promote Morocco's investment opportunities and encourage British businessmen to invest in the country.

Hailing the sound political and strategic dialogue existing between the two countries, the Moroccan Foreign Minister, Taib Fassi Fihri, stressed that Morocco is determined to further enhance its cooperation ties with the United Kingdom in all sectors.

"Morocco is an open country, which signed free trade agreements (FTAs) with several countries including the United States, the European Union, Turkey and some Arab countries," Fihri explained after recalling the country's political and social reforms.

For his part, Moroccan Finance and Economy Minister, Salaheddine Mezouar highlighted the Kingdom's economic potentials and positive performance despite the economic crisis.

"In spite of the global unfavorable situation, Morocco's emerging economy, based on diversified macroeconomic foundations, offers large investment opportunities," Mezouar underlined, adding that growth rate between 2005 and 2009 reached 5.3%.

Morocco's Industry, Commerce and Technology Minister, Ahmed Reda Chami, also joined in, saying that "Morocco has set up the right framework to attract more foreign investments and serve as a regional industrial hub."

As to the Energy Minister, Amina Benkhadra, she tackled the issue from her perspective. She stressed that Morocco has a long experience and policy in the field of energy and environment protection.

She thus called on British companies to participate in Morocco's energy projects, which aim at increasing the contribution of renewable energies to the country's national power production.

Morocco has recently decided to launch a large-scale solar energy project, worth nine billion dollars, which seeks to achieve a 2,000-megawatt production capacity by the year 2020.

"In fact, this high-level Moroccan delegation shows HM King Mohammed VI's strong will to further bolster bilateral relations with Great Britain," said the Moroccan ambassador to Great Britain, Chrifa Lalla Joumala Alaoui, who took part in the London conference.

She also noted that this inaugural conference is the first of a series of annual meetings that aim at promoting Morocco's investment opportunities.