Roundup: Morocco, Portugal sign 12 cooperation agreements to boost partnership

RABAT, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Morocco and Portugal signed here on Tuesday 12 cooperation agreements in various areas to strengthen bilateral partnership.

Signed during the 13th session of the Morocco-Portugal High-Level Meeting, the agreements cover the fields of economic, energy, cultural, civil service and health, as well as triangular cooperation with third countries.

The two countries inked a cooperation action plan in the maritime and port sector for 2018-2019, an agreement for the implementation of a cooperation program in the field of tourism for the period 2017-2019 and a protocol for cooperation in the area of digital government and information technologies.

Other agreements consisted of memorandum of understandings in the field of health, geology and mining, renewable energies, civil service and modernization of the administration and on triangular cooperation.

The signing ceremony was co-chaired by Moroccan head of government Saad Eddine El Othmani and Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

Othmani said here on Monday that Morocco and Portugal have the same views on several issues regarding bilateral cooperation, including the need to support the private sector to boost economic relations.

Speaking during the high-level meeting, the two sides hailed their solid friendship, calling on more efforts to enhance the bilateral relations.

Othmani highlighted prospects for cooperation between the two countries in the framework of Morocco's African policy.

Costa lauded cooperation between Portuguese and Moroccan businesses at the level of the African continent, underlining that many promising fields could contribute to the development of a win-win partnership.

Held under the theme "Synergies for industrial co-investment," the forum aimed to promote business and investment opportunities in key areas and to establish new partnerships between the two countries' business communities.

It brought together a large delegation of Portuguese enterprises and Moroccan economic operators from various sectors.

Some 300 Portuguese companies are installed in Morocco, while over 1,300 Portuguese companies are exporting to Morocco.

In 2015, Portugal's exports of goods and services to Morocco surged 18.5 percent to 649.9 million euros (766.9 million U.S. dollars), while imports rose 12.2 percent to 211.1 million euros, according to data from the Portuguese Institute of Statistics. Enditem