Editor's Note:
China and Morocco share a long history of exchanges and a long tradition of friendship. Under the strategic guidance of the heads of state of the two countries, China and Morocco have established strategic partnership and bilateral relations have achieved leapfrog growth. Morocco was among the first countries in Africa and Arab world to join the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has yielded fruitful results in bilateral cooperation. Global Times reporter Ma Jingjing (GT) interviewed new Moroccan Ambassador to China Abdelkader El Ansari for China-Morocco economic and trade cooperation.

The Hassan II Mosque at Casablanca, Morocco Photo: VCG

GT: This year marks the 66th anniversary of the establishment of China-Morocco diplomatic ties. What are your comments on China-Morocco ties over the past decades?

El Ansari: China and Morocco have century-old relations, not only decades, because we are every year celebrating the anniversary of the Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta who visited China already in the 14th century. And there is also a very famous Chinese traveler named Wang Dayuan who visited Morocco in the same century. So, our relations are very old. This year we are celebrating the 66th anniversary of our diplomatic relations, and I know that number six is very important in China, brings joy and hope. So, 66th anniversary means double joy and double hope. We have very strong relations built on mutual respect, real friendship, solidarity, and reliability. The future is even more promising for our relations. I am very confident about that.

GT: Morocco is among the very first countries that signed the memorandum of understanding about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). What achievements have been made under BRI cooperation between China and Morocco?

El Ansari: We have now identified many projects that could be realized under the framework of BRI. We have selected 14 important sectors in which we will implement projects because the opportunities of cooperation and exchange are very big between our two countries. The priority projects are in fields including infrastructure, health, agriculture, industry, renewable energy and technological industry. That means the industries with very high added-value. And we are progressing now very fast in that sense.

We are happy to see that Morocco will be maybe one of the pillars of the implementation of the BRI worldwide. So, this is an important compound of our relations and we hope that in the coming few years we will have a lot of projects completed under the BRI framework.

GT: People-to-people exchange is one of the highlights of China-Morocco relations, especially since the joint building of the BRI. What's the status quo of people-to-people exchanges between the two countries?

El Ansari: The geography makes distance very big between our two countries, but this doesn't prevent that we have quite good people-to-people relations in at least three fields. During His Majesty the King Mohammed VI's visit to Beijing in May 2016, His Majesty decided to lift the visa requirement for the Chinese people to visit Morocco. Since then, we have noticed a big rise of Chinese tourists visiting Morocco. Second, we have a big presence of Moroccan students here in China. Third, we have very good cooperation in the field of culture. Morocco and China are among the few countries in the world with a millenary history. So, there are big interests from Chinese people for Moroccan culture, ancestral culture, and in Morocco, there is also a big interest as well for the Chinese culture. I am convinced that the people-to-people relations and exchanges are the best cement to our friendly relations.

Caption: Moroccan Ambassador to China Abdelkader El Ansari Photo: Yu Jiayin/GT

GT: China is one of Morocco's main trading partners. What's your view on the China-Morocco relations in the future? And what areas can the two countries deepen cooperation and promote further development of the China-Morocco strategic partnership?

El Ansari: The potential of China-Morocco economic relations is very big. China is the first economic partner of Morocco in Asia, and its third commercial partner worldwide. In 2016, the two countries decided to establish China-Morocco strategic partnership, opening new chapter in the bilateral relations. In this strategic partnership, there is a very important part of economic relations and partnership relations in economy and trade. We hope that Chinese companies and investors will come to do business in Morocco.

Morocco has a very good geostrategic location, political stability and economic vision, and is a very good platform for developing business for the Chinese companies. Morocco has signed more than 54 free trade agreements with other countries and organizations, which allows to enter from Morocco a market of 1.4 billion consumers. We are now receiving more and more Chinese companies to invest in Morocco in many fields including car industry, renewable energies, infrastructure, textile, agriculture and mining. And now Morocco has opened a lot of very ambitious programs in many fields. Morocco will be hosting the Football World Cup in 2030 with Spain and Portugal, and this can open very big opportunities for investments and for business for the Chinese companies.

GT: Morocco is now Africa's largest car manufacturer with an annual production capacity of nearly one million vehicles. China's new-energy vehicle sector has enjoyed rapid development. What opportunities do you see between the two countries' automobile sector?

El Ansari: We are happy to receive more and more Chinese companies engaged in the field such as car industry, electronic components and tires. We are very confident and ambitious for our relations in this particular sector. The future is the electric vehicles. China is a pioneer and has a very strong industry in that respect. We hope that we will find common interests and common projects to develop these electric vehicles in Morocco with the help and partnership of Chinese companies.

There is a very big interest from Chinese companies in the big ecosystem of car industry, especially the electric car industry, to come to Morocco. We welcome Chinese companies to come to see what are the opportunities of business that are available in Morocco and to have investments in Morocco. Mohammed VI Tangiers Tech City, a Chinese-sponsored manufacturing and technology zone outside Tangiers is already hosting dozens of Chinese companies. We hope to have more Chinese companies make business in Morocco, and beyond Morocco to reach other markets.

Graphic: Zhen Tao/GT

GT: The 2024 Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) is scheduled to be held in China this autumn. What's your expectations for the forum and how do you think China-Morocco relations can contribute to Africa's development?

El Ansari: Since the start of the FOCAC in 2000, Morocco has always been participating at a high level. We know that China also gives very big importance to relations with Africa, and especially in terms of development and solidarity. The vision of China and that of Morocco toward Africa are the same. We're committed to making the coming summit in September of the FOCAC a very big success, like what was the summit of 2018 in Beijing.

As we are enjoying very good relations, China and Morocco can work together to voice the interests of Africa. We also hope that we can develop trilateral cooperation projects between China, Morocco and our common partners in Africa in various sectors including infrastructure, trade and training. There are now many initiatives that Morocco has taken within the African continent, for example, Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline, the Atlantic Initiative and an initiative to promote the access of Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean. We hope that China will also contribute to the implementation of these three big initiatives, because they have the same philosophy and the same objectives as the Chinese vision toward the development of Africa.

The upcoming summit will be a very good opportunity to exchange and to identify big strategic projects in which China, Africa and Morocco can work for peace and security, for economic development and for handling climate change and many challenges we are facing together.