Morocco and Saudi Arabia plan to launch a joint fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises for export and investment. The announcement was made by the President of the Moroccan-Saudi Business Council, Khalid Benjelloun. This initiative will aim to increase the volume of bilateral trade.
In a statement to the newspaper “Iqtisad al Sharq”, Khalid Benjelloun stressed that the public and private sectors of both countries should participate in the establishment of the fund, including the Moroccan banks Attijariwafa Bank, Banque Populaire, Crédit Agricole du Maroc and Bank of Africa, as well as the Saudi Investment Bank and the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector of the Islamic Development Bank Group.
The fund “will serve as a one-stop shop to facilitate financing procedures and logistics to support the orientation of businesses towards export and investment between the two countries,” said the chairman of the Moroccan-Saudi Business Council at the end of the meeting held last week in Casablanca. He added that the opportunities to increase trade between the two countries are “very large”, calling to overcome administrative and logistical obstacles to bring bilateral trade to a higher level.
He also said that economic relations between the two countries are characterized by “the predominance of hydrocarbons and agricultural products,” stressing that the goal is to work to further diversify them by simplifying administrative relations such as mutual recognition of certificates, and facilitating trade operations through the launch of a direct shipping line.
During the last meeting of the Moroccan-Saudi Business Council, several Moroccan products that could increase the volume of their exports to Saudi Arabia were identified, including textiles, handicrafts, automotive parts, food products and technological products. As for Saudi exports to Morocco, chemicals, oils and plastic products have also been identified.
