Funding development - Kuwait invests $1 billion in Morocco

Morocco (Rabat) - The Kuwaiti investments in Morocco reached about 8 billion dirhams ($1 billion) in various sectors, Morocco's Economy and Finance Minister
Salaheddine Mezouar said on Thursday.

These investments significantly increased with a tendency for more sectoral diversification, Mezouar told the press following the signing ceremony of four agreements to reinforce the Moroccan-Kuwaiti cooperation, under the chairmanship of HM King Mohammed VI and HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The Moroccan official added that Kuwait is one of the Kingdom's main partners in terms of funding development projects in Morocco (ports, highways, electricity, high speed rail, dams…).

The Moroccan-Kuwaiti agreements signed on Thursday reflect the deep and sound bilateral relations, he said, underlining that the two countries are willing to further boost trade exchanges which do not live up to their expectations.

The contribution of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to development projects in Morocco increased to 1.2 billion dollars, said on Thursday in Rabat the Fund's managing director, Abdelwahab Ahmed Al-Badr.

The Fund has signed 36 agreements as part of the Moroccan-Kuwaiti cooperation, he told the press after the signing ceremony of four agreements on bilateral cooperation under the chairmanship of HM King Mohammed VI and the Amir of Kuwait HH Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Abdelwahab Ahmed Al-Badr added that the Kuwait Fund will, under these agreements, finance a development project on the transmission of electricity worth 20 million Kuwaiti dinars, as well as a high-speed train project, with a contribution of 40 million Kuwaiti dinars.

Cooperation between the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and Morocco's electricity utility, known by its French acronym ONE, stood at 1.011 billion dirhams ($125 mln) under the form of four loans.

These loans contributed, since 1975, to the funding and building of the central thermal of Kenitra, the Al Wahda central hydroelectric power plant, the hydraulic complex of Dchar El Oued-Aït Messaoud, and the implementation of the fourth phase of the comprehensive rural electrification programme, the ONE said in a statement.

The two parties signed another agreement worth 660 million dirhams, on Thursday in Rabat, during the official visit of HH the Amir of Kwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

The agreement aims to reinfoirce the network of electricity transmission in the southern provinces.

Global Arab Network