Morocco’s ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, stated that Morocco prioritizes, in its foreign policy, cooperation with the least developed countries, in accordance with the vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI regarding South-South cooperation.
Hilale, who intervened at the 5th United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries (LDC5), stated that Morocco is keen to support these nations through the implementation of several steps to advance projects and programs in several fields, as well as the establishment of industrial units for the production of vaccines and fertilizer plants, which can help improve the continent’s health system and food security.
In the same context, Hilale stressed that Morocco undertook several initiatives, including facilitating access of exports from the least developed African countries to the Moroccan market, as well as the enrolment of African students in universities and vocational training institutions in the Kingdom, while granting them scholarships, in addition to regularizing the situation of about 50 thousand immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa, settled in Morocco since 2014.
In terms of climate and food security, Hilale underlined that Morocco has undertaken a series of initiatives in a global and interactive approach that helped shape a clear and ambitious African vision to meet climate change challenges, recalling, in this regard, the support of the three committees created during the African Climate Summit, held at the invitation of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, on the sidelines of the COP22 held in Marrakech in 2016.
Hilale highlighted the Triple A initiative launched to adapt African agriculture to climate change, which currently includes 38 African countries and several development and financial partners, further recalling the Triple S initiative, in partnership with Senegal, to establish stability and security in Africa, in addition to the two initiatives of access to sustainable energy and the Climate Center for African Youth, which as launched on the sidelines of the Climate Summit in 2019.
The Moroccan diplomat also recalled OCP’s initiative to provide 4 million tons of fertilizer to African farmers during 2023, in order to meet Africa’s urgent needs for this essential substance.
The Ambassador also underlined that Morocco, under the leadership of His Majesty the King, demonstrated, during the Covid-19 pandemic, its unwavering values of solidarity with fellow African countries and its firm commitment to supporting them, reiterating the Kingdom’s call to all partners, in particular the United Nations development system, to unite their efforts to achieve the goals defined, to ensure support to the efforts of the least developed countries in their journey towards a sustainable transition.
In this context, Hilale urges the international community to adopt a series of supportive and effective initiatives, in line with the Doha work program, with the aim of supporting the efforts of economic take-off and sustainable development in the least developed countries, thus ensuring their integration into the world economy.
The official added that efforts must be invested to provide these countries with access to modern technologies, build their resilience to climate change challenges and natural disasters, and help them formulate innovative solutions to graduate from the list of least developed countries.
In addition to Hilale, the Moroccan delegation representing Morocco at this conference includes the Moroccan ambassador to Qatar, Mohamed Sitri, the Director of Multilateral Cooperation and International Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and Moroccan Expatriates, Abdellah Ben Mellouk, as well as other representatives from the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation (AMCI).