Zouhair TRIQUI, general secretariat of the Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency, speaks at the Morocco investment promotion event in Beijing on Wednesday. Photo: Wang Bozun/GT

Morocco is eying agriculture cooperation with China, and it will provide opportunities for Chinese agricultural entrepreneurs and investors to do business in the country, Moroccan officials said in Beijing on Wednesday.

Mourad Layachi, minister counselor of the Moroccan Embassy in Beijing, made this remark during an agricultural investment promotion event jointly held by the embassy and China's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA), saying that the two countries are strategic partners, and the synergy between the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and Morocco's national development plans will offer huge potential for entrepreneurs in this field.

According to Layachi, Morocco has three national development strategies: the Green Morocco Plan, which focuses on improving the productivity and durability of the agricultural upstream; the HALIEUTIS Plan, which improves the performance of the fishing sector, and the Industrial Acceleration Plan, which improves the attractiveness and the export capacity of the country's industries. 

"Our country's three national strategies are complementary to the BRI, and together with the BRI, they can offer more opportunities for the agricultural product processing industry and relevant international trade," Zouhair TRIQUI, general secretariat of the Moroccan Investment and Export Development Agency, told the Global Times at the meeting.

Morocco is an important partner of the BRI, and in the business field Morocco and China have similar characteristics - clear development goals, strong drivers for economic growth and matched development plans, said Feng Yong, deputy director general of the Foreign Economic Cooperation Center at the MARA.

 "I believe that the two countries could cooperate in investment and trade with their own advantages, and march forward together," Feng said.

With its geographical advantages and government efforts, agro-industry has been a strategic sector of the Moroccan economy, which accounts for 26 percent of the country's industrial GDP. The sector's annual revenues have increased 60 percent since 2004, according to TRIQUI.

The Moroccan government has made efforts to promote its agriculture sector such as releasing preferential policies to attract foreign investment, and promoting cooperation between local and foreign entrepreneurs.

Li Wei, an employee at Panjin Weiyingwan Eco-agriculture Co, which sells rice globally, told the Global Times that cooperation under the BRI and Morocco's national development plan offers the company more channels to export its products to Europe.

"Other than rice, we also carry seafood, and I would like to see if there is an opportunity to use Morocco as a bridge to export our seafood products to the EU, which has a trade agreement with the country," Li said.