Washington - Morocco is set to position itself as an investment and trade bridge linking Africa and Europe, wrote on Monday media company "Bloomberg" on its website.
"The monarch’s business pitch is part of his nation’s efforts to deepen trade with West Africa," said the U.S. website.
This African strategy offers the kingdom, "which has so far avoided the turmoil that’s engulfed parts of the region, the opportunity to promote its moderate Islamic theology and politics in a region where extremism is on the rise," it added.
Moroccan companies have established a successful presence in these countries and there’s clear input from the monarchy to support this," said Bloomberg quoting Riccardo Fabiani, senior North Africa analyst at London-based Eurasia Group.
It said that Morocco doubled exports to sub-Saharan Africa from 2008 to 2013. Its investment in Africa reached about 1.4 billion Moroccan dirhams ($145 million) last year. "A regional finance hub is being built in the coastal city of Casablanca."
For its part, Attijariwafa Bank, Morocco’s biggest lender, has 312 branches in West Africa. It helps finance many of the kingdom’s regional projects, including the cleaning of Abidjan’s lagoon, the largest of about four dozen accords signed during King Mohammed VI’s visit.
Maroc Telecom bought Emirates Telecommunications Corp.’s West Africa operations this year for $650 million and plans to invest 1.6 MAD billion more in the region over the next five years, it said, noting that Royal Air Maroc flies from Casablanca to about half of the 48 countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
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