Morocco’s acceptance to ECOWAS beneficial
The Kingdom of Morocco became a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) last week Sunday.
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The country had rejoined the African Union (AU) in January this year.
The Foreign Editor of the Daily Graphic (DG), Kate Baaba Hudson, interviewed the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to Ghana, Mr Hamid Chabar, at his office in Accra on the benefits of the membership to Morocco and ECOWAS.
DG: Sir, the heads of ECOWAS met last week Sunday in Monrovia, Liberia, and agreed in principle to admit your country to its membership. What does that mean to Morocco?
Ambassador: Thank you. Let me say straight away that the acceptance signifies good news for everyone; to Morocco and to ECOWAS itself, which is fast becoming a very attractive regional organisation for other countries on the continent. But let me first explain that the 51st Summit of ECOWAS did not only examine Morocco's request for acceptance of its membership formally on February 23, but also the request of Tunisia seeking for observer status and Mauritania which wanted to return to the regional body.
For Morocco, this was an undeniable success. What remains to be done involves the legalities and technical implications, after which the conclusions will be made at the meeting scheduled for Lome, Togo, in December this year.
My country highly welcomes the position of the member states and the great consensus that prevailed during the discussion.
DG: Kindly tell me what the current relationship between your country and ECOWAS is like?
Ambassador: The relations between Morocco and ECOWAS are diverse and dense. Their importance can be stressed through the following areas.
“Of the 52 visits made by His Majesty the King of the Kingdom of Morocco, King Mohamed VI, to the African sub-Saharan countries, 26 visits targeted the West African region. In this context, Ghana received His Majesty this year from February 16 to 20.”
During this visit, 25 agreements were signed and I wish to state that 16 out of these agreements involved the private sector. It has given a new impetus to relations between the two countries in all fields. Since then, several ministers have travelled to Morocco for various activities, including the Speaker of Parliament, accompanied by the majority and minority leaders.
Morocco is today considered the first investor in the ECOWAS region. These investments cover several areas, such as the banking sector, the construction sector, energy, sanitation, agriculture and infrastructure. As a result, 65 per cent of its investments in sub-Saharan countries are concentrated in the ECOWAS region.
Let me emphasise that of the 8,600 students from sub-Saharan countries pursuing their studies in Morocco today, 6,600 have been awarded scholarship by the government of Morocco. Fifty per cent of these scholarships are reserved for ECOWAS countries.
Over the past four years, Morocco has regularised the situation of more than 40,000 sub-Saharan migrants, majority of whom are from the ECOWAS countries.
The royal armed forces of my country has also been at the service of peace keeping activities in several areas of tension within the continent. It should be noted that inspite of all these, Moroccan exports to ECOWAS countries remain weak and do not exceed 6.5 per cent, compared to the rest of the world. We believe that the kingdom's acceptance to the regional bloc will change this situation for the benefit of all partners.
DG: What will you say are the additional values, particularly in terms of trade?
Ambassador: There is already the added value. The accession of the Kingdom as a full member state will strengthen its relations and make trade more fluid. There is an aspiration for increased trade to the benefit of all partners. Moroccan expertise in several fields can be used to enhance the economy of member countries, particularly in the fields of agriculture, manufacturing and services, to mention a few. A significant added value will also be the increase of the leadership of the West African region in terms of political and security power (fight against terrorism and transnational crimes), as well as the new geopolitical reconfiguration of the West African space due to the strategic geographical position of Morocco to Europe with a Mediterranean exposure.
DG: Your Excellency, your country’s move to the African Union in January 2017 and to ECOWAS this month received great response. What could account for this?
Ambassador: The seriousness with which we approached the continent, how we initiated the moves and constantly monitored by His Majesty the King himself. There was a genuine commitment to the African continent, which was expressed in his passionate speech in January this year in Addis Ababa, as summarised simply as “Africa must trust Africa’’ through the creation of new channels of solidarity. African countries believed in this and supported Morocco for both its reintegration to the AU and its accession to ECOWAS.
DG: Touching on the migration issue, how will Morocco contribute to the fight against terrorism and poverty, through integrated development models?
Ambassador: Morocco’s capacity to make an important contribution to countries South of the Sahara is not in doubt. Morocco was the first country on the southern front of the Mediterranean to carry out a policy initiated by the King to regularise the situation of thousands of irregular migrants.
In the fight against terrorism, Morocco had acquired the expertise which makes it today a country to fall on in this matter. Many co-operation actions in this field are being undertaken with a number of countries.
Similarly, with religious extremism, Morocco is constantly advocating an open and tolerant Islam by attacking the roots of these scourges by training a number of African Imams and providing basic needs of the populations through programmes and models of development and empowerment.
These are the contributions Morocco can make to the rest of the continent and, especially, to the countries of ECOWAS. The request to join ECOWAS is sincere.