Morocco, Saudi to launch maritime trade route ‘soon’

Morocco and Saudi Arabia will open a maritime line in the coming weeks to give a new dynamic to the economic cooperation and trade between the two countries, the Chairman of the Moroccan-Saudi Business Council, Khaled Benjelloun, said yesterday.

The Federation of Saudi Chambers signed an agreement with a shipping company to establish a direct line between Morocco and Saudi Arabia, Benjelloun explained.

On Monday, Moroccan Minister of Industry and Trade, Ryad Mezzour, said he had agreed with his Saudi counterpart Bandar Bin Ibrahim Al-Khorayef on a “road map” for industrial integration between the two countries.

According to official Moroccan data, Saudi Arabia owns 240 investment projects in Morocco while Morocco has 11 investment projects in Saudi Arabia.

Moroccan-Saudi trade declined in 2019 to just $900 million, down from $2.9 billion in 2011.

Saudi Arabia is Morocco’s largest trading partner in the Arab world; with bilateral trade amounting to 17.2 billion dirhams in 2021 ($1.76 billion), according to official data.

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