Mohammed Methqual
As part of moves to promote unity and peace through education, the government of Morocco has opened its doors to many foreign students to access higher quality education.
It is estimated that over 40,000 foreign students had, over the last three decades, benefited from higher education, technical and vocational training in Morocco.
Mohammed Methqual, Ambassador Director General of the Morocco International Cooperation Agency (AMCI), said the students were drawn from 117 countries.
Currently, 14,000 foreign students are studying in the Morocco through AMCI, and 85 per cent of them are on scholarship.
He was addressing the Third Morocco-Pacific Islands States Forum in the Moroccan southern city of Laayoune.
The theme for the meeting was ‘strengthening linkages, delivering on commitments and unifying voices for shared prosperity between Morocco and the Pacific Island States’, aimed at exploring ways to enhance bilateral cooperation between Morocco and the Pacific Islands.
Mr. Methqal said they had also been supporting capacity building of public sector executives, with about 10,000 public sector officials from 80 countries trained in areas of agriculture, fisheries, water, health, tourism, energy and climate change.
Morocco has always had strong relations with countries of the south and this has been marked by solidarity, mutual respect and the promotion of common ideals.
In 1986, Morocco established the AMCI, a public institution that operates under of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to contribute to strengthening its relations with partner countries through academic, cultural and technical cooperation.
He said south-south cooperation is one of the major pillars of the Kingdom’s foreign policy, adding that developing human capital and sustainable progress are at the centre of every initiative or action they take.
AMCI has been playing pivotal role to empower foreign students to receive education in Moroccan universities, technical and vocational training centres.
He said a new proposed partnership between the Kingdom and the Pacific Islands States, which would be launched at the forum, would provide impetus to socio-economic progress of their peoples.
“We must join together, unite our efforts and work together to continue our work and help accelerate the realisation of the ideals of our peoples. This ambition can be achieved through important programmes that we have proposed in the roadmap to strengthen our bilateral cooperation and which we can discuss during technical meetings,” Mr. Methqal indicated.