Morocco and the United Arab Emirates are determined to expand their economic and commercial cooperation. The business forum organized jointly by the Casablanca-Settat Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services and Dubai Chambers, on Thursday June 6 in Casablanca, bears witness to this determination to further bilateral investment and trade.
Since the establishment of the first diplomatic relations in 1972, the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have maintained exemplary bilateral cooperation relations over the decades. In recent years, partnerships between the two countries have extended to various economic sectors, including energy, logistics, finance and investment, data storage, agriculture, real estate and tourism.
More specifically, trade between Morocco and the Emirate of Dubai stood at $886 million in 2023, excluding hydrocarbons, says Dubai Chambers CEO Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah. Furthermore, the CEO of Dubai Chambers points out that “by the end of the first quarter of 2024, a total of 850 companies from Morocco were registered as active members of the Dubai Chamber of Commerce”. “99 new member companies joined us in the first three months of 2024 alone, reflecting the Moroccan business community’s growing interest in Dubai”, he, noting that “the Kingdom is home to the fourth largest number of active member companies in all of Africa, underscoring its importance to Dubai”.
Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah continues: “A recent IMF report on the world economic outlook indicates that Morocco is set to become Africa’s sixth largest economy by 2024. Naturally, the country remains a market of great strategic importance to Dubai”.
The CEO of Dubai Chambers added that the purpose of the trade mission he is leading is “to bring together the Moroccan and Dubai business communities to develop a better understanding of each other’s markets”.
For his part, Hassane Berkani, President of the Casablanca-Settat Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services, points out that Dubai represents a strategic platform for Moroccan businessmen to access Asian markets, particularly in the agri-food sector.
Berkani also points out that the United Arab Emirates is the leading investor in Morocco, with investments totalling $30 billion, which are set to double in the coming years.
Referring to the Office du Change’s statistics on trade between the two countries, the President of CCISCS reports that the value of Moroccan exports to the UAE reached 2 billion and 109 million dirhams by the end of 2023, while the value of Moroccan imports from the UAE reached 13 billion and 187 million dirhams by the end of 2023.
Berkani is also convinced that “if the business opportunities in both countries are well exploited, and given their economic complementarity, it is entirely possible to go even further in terms of performance through the conclusion of strong strategic partnerships in various vital sectors such as industry, renewable energies, new technologies and transport and logistics, all the more so as the two countries have been linked by a free trade agreement since 2003”.
