Singapore, 10 March 2022 (TDI): The Foreign Minister of Singapore, Vivian Balakrishnan spoke to the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita on a video link.

Singapore’s relations with the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and Tunisia) have grown steadily since 2005, driven by several high-level visits that fostered and nurtured closer political and economic cooperation.

Vivian Balakrishnan and the Moroccan Foreign Minister agreed to enhance the bilateral relationships on the occasion of celebrating the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties.

Both Ministers expressed gratitude for supporting each other. Singapore supports the candidacy of the Moroccan parliament to the ASEAN inter-parliamentary Assembly (AIPA).

Minister Balakrishnan reiterated the support of Singapore for Moroccan application for the status of sectoral dialogue within the ASEAN.

Singapore-Morocco Ties

Singapore has a diplomatic presence in all the Maghreb countries. Likewise, Singapore inaugurated an Honorary Consulate in Casablanca, Morocco in 2019 for diplomatic representation aiming to strengthen the economic and cultural ties between the two countries.

The two countries have always tried to consolidate their strategic positions in their respective continents strengthening their bond and giving new impetus to the bilateral relationships.

In mid-2014 the Singapore Business Federation (SBF) organized business forums to highlight to the local business communities the opportunities in Morocco. The SBF also led a business delegation to Morocco in March 2018.

In 2014 Morocco also participated in the Africa-Singapore Business Forum organized by enterprises of Singapore. Singapore has actively shared its developmental experience with Morocco.

To date over 300 officials from the Maghreb have participated in various capacity-building courses under the Singapore Cooperation Program. Both countries reaffirmed their warm and cordial friendly ties and always looked forward to strengthening bilateral cooperation.

Both countries have a wide-ranging discussion on the security challenges and exchanged views on how to enhance bilateral cooperation. Singapore’s relations with Morocco have been gaining traction year on year.

The trade between the two regions has increased as over 60 companies are currently working in the Maghreb and set their direction on the continent as it opens the door to digitalization regional integration and global trade.

Singapore-Africa Business Forum noted that Singapore trades with Africa encompass fruits, electronic, and petroleum products followed by services such as transport logistics and IT.

They pledged to increase partnership for their respective regions, reflecting that Morocco has diverse businesses in the digital space. Therefore, Singapore will partner with the Kenyan ICT specialists Crescentech to provide security and surveillance industries such as banking, telecommunications, and retail across southern Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.

These timely partnerships are particularly relevant in the light of morocco’s thriving digital and manufacturing industries as two new growth engines in addition to traditional industries such as oil and gas and urban infrastructure solutions.

Consumerism is also on the rise with the Morocco e-commerce market. Honorary Consulate of Singapore in Casablanca is working on strengthening the economic and cultural ties in order to consolidate their strategic positions in their respective regions.

Both countries have shown their interest and concern in the regional security situation, the fight against terrorism and rehabilitation efforts, and the ways and means to work together in combating terror and radical ideology to give new impetus to their relationships.

Moreover, Singapore and Morocco always find ways to strengthen people-to-people exchanges and endeavors for the maintenance of a free and open multilateral trading system for mutual benefits and an open market economy.

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