During the second part of his visit to Morocco last week, Minister John Cortes, held a meeting with representatives of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Services of the Region of Tangier Tetouan-Al Hoceima. 

A statement from the Government follows below:

Present at the meeting were the President of the Chamber, Abdelatif Afailal, and the Head of the Strategy and Partnership Department, Aziz Agbalu. They were joined by Moroccan Government official Ahmed Kyad, the Regional Director of Industry and Commerce for Tangier. Also present was Mohamed Imrani of the Gibraltar-Tangier Business Association. 

The discussions were wide-ranging. Both the Moroccan and Gibraltar sides recognised the close connection between the two communities and reminisced about the days of closer links including daily ferries and regular shopping trips in both directions. Possibilities of once again achieving closer personal and commercial links were discussed in some detail, with further exchanges and more focused discussions planned for the coming months. 

The Minister with responsibility for developing relations with Morocco, the Hon Prof John Cortes, commented: “As in all my meetings in Morocco, once again our engagement with the Chamber officials was extremely positive, and I am hopefulthat we will see things happening soon. I will now share the content of our discussions and ideas with my relevant colleagues with a view to taking these forward.”