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Khalil

It seems that Morocco and Spain are determined to join hands in the face of the international crisis, as they have recently signed a number of cooperation agreements in different sectors. The most recent one, singed on Wednesday, concerns the tourist sector.


Yesterday, the two neighbour countries' tourist ministers signed in Rabat a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which provides for cooperation in such fields as tourist stuff training, tourist statistics, as well as coordination at the level of international organizations.

Since the tourist sector plays a major role in both countries' economies, they also agreed to follow up and fund tourist projects, and particularly share experiences and expertise in the field.

Last year, Morocco received some 600,000 tourists from Spain, which is the second most important tourist market for Morocco, following that of France.

Spain is one of the European countries that have been deeply affected by the international financial crisis, as unemployment rate increased from 13.9% in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 17.4% in the first quarter of 2009.

On Tuesday, the Spanish Institute for Official Credit (ICO) signed two agreements with Morocco's electricity and railway public utilities, ONE and ONCF respectively, to finance this latter's development projects.

Last month, the two countries signed an agreement to further strengthen their foreign trade cooperation, as Spain is also considered Morocco's second trade partner.

In December 2008, the Moroccan and Spanish employment ministers signed a memorandum of understanding for tight cooperation in such issues as employment, social security and vocational training.

As part of this agreement, spanning 2009-2011, the Spanish employment ministry will help the Moroccan one to enhance its institutional capacities in terms of social dialogue, professional relations, heath, social security, job market management, legal migration and vocational training.

Earlier in the same month, Morocco and Spain had held their 9th high-level meeting, which involved many ministers and other high-ranking officials.

This meeting was crowned by the signing of a euro 520 million financial agreement for the period 2009-2011, to fund development projects in Morocco.

“Morocco and Spain are determined to work as real partners for the development of both countries' peoples and face together the challenges of the 21st century,” said a joint declaration at the end of this high-level meeting.

Recent statistics have shown that the number of Moroccans living in Spain reached 644,688, to be the most important foreign community whose origin is from outside the EU.

Unfortunately, the Moroccan community has been the first to suffer from Spain's unemployment crisis.

By CMC