The Moroccan Foreign Exchange Office said on Thursday that trade between Morocco and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has increased by 235% over the past ten years, reaching a total of 3.3 billion dollars.
The GCC includes Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
According to the same source, trade exchanges between the two sides amounted to 29.2 billion dirhams in 2013 as opposed to 8.7 billion dirhams in 2003.
Trade volume with Saudi Arabia remains the most important one and represents more than 80% of the total trade volume between Morocco and the Gulf states.
Morocco’s imports of energy from the Gulf countries represent more than 65% of its total imports. On the other hand, Moroccan exports to these countries have declined by 25%, reaching a low of 1.2 billion dirhams.
Still according to the same source, GCC’s investments in Morocco in 2013 represented 15.7% of the total foreign investment in the country with a total amount of 6.2 billion dirhams.
GCC countries are the fourth exporters to Morocco after Spain, France and the USA.
It is worth mentioning that Morocco is expected to host the 4th meeting of the Gulf-Moroccan investment initiative on November 28-29 in Casablanca under the slogan “strategic Moroccan-Gulf partnership: Casablanca’s gate to Africa”, which a number of economic organisations, trade and investment institutions will participate in, in addition to foreign, Gulf, and Moroccan experts, academics and researchers.
The Moroccan Times.
