Morocco, Switzerland hold talks on boosting economic exchanges

BERN - Morocco's Minister of Industry and Trade, Ryad Mezzour, and Swiss Federal Councillor for Economy, Training, and Research, Guy Parmelin, met in Bern on Monday to discuss ways of boosting economic exchanges and integration between both countries' production sectors.

The exchange was part of a working visit by Mezzour to Switzerland, which included meetings with Swiss economic players and visits to several of the country's production units to explore new areas of cooperation between Morocco and Switzerland.

On this occasion, the Swiss official hailed "the positive results" of economic cooperation between Morocco and Switzerland, pointing to "the sustained pace" of growth in bilateral trade, which he said offers promising opportunities for further progress.

According to the Swiss Federal Councillor, "trade between the two countries is fairly balanced, reflecting the great diversity of the Moroccan economy."

Reflecting on his last visit to Morocco last fall, at the head of a major economic mission, Parmelin noted that the two sides were "evaluating promising sectors for trade as part of a win-win approach."

For his part, Mezzour emphasized the existing integration between the Moroccan and Swiss economic fabrics, particularly in terms of innovation and competitiveness.

Today, over 40 Swiss companies operate in Morocco in various sectors such as agri-food and aeronautics, he said, stressing that the current trend in economic relations between the two countries is to strengthen complementarity in terms of innovation within the framework of relations between companies and innovation centers to increase the added value of Moroccan production.

Mezzour also stressed the need to strengthen integration between the two countries in terms of competitiveness to enable Morocco to access larger world markets and intensify trade.

The two sides agreed that the textile sector could be a driving force in intensifying economic cooperation, taking advantage of the close relations between stakeholders in both countries.