São Paulo – In a visit to Brazil to attend the World Water Forum 8, which runs until Friday (23) in Brasília (DF), Morocco’s prime minister, Saadeddine Othmani, met with president Michel Temer on Monday (19) afternoon after the event’s official opening.
The aeronautic sector was one of the main topics of the meeting, according to information released by Palácio do Planalto. Othmani mentioned the high number of passengers flying between São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Casablanca in the flight by state-owned airline Royal Air Maroc. According to him, another flight to Brazil is in the plans, this time to the capital of the state of Ceará, Fortaleza.
Temer also heard from the prime minister that Moroccan airlines are interested in buying more aircrafts produced by Brazilian company Embraer. Royal Air Maroc already bought four E190 jets to its fleet.
The two leaders also talked about the Mercosur-Morocco agreement, with negotiations being resumed last November. According to Palácio do Planalto, both parts agreed that there is a need to speed up negotiations.
Lastly, Temer and Othmani talked about agricultural cooperation. The Moroccan prime minister said to be interested in receiving the technical support of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). Brazilian technicians visited Morocco recently for daily imports.
Award Hassan II
At the opening ceremony of the 8th edition of the World Water Forum this Monday, the Moroccan prime minister talked about the importance and concern that Morocco has in preserving water resources for the next generations.
As is customary, the Award Hassan II was handed out, a joint initiative by the World Water Council, the forum’s organizer, and the Kingdom of Morocco – the award is a tribute to the late king, who led the country from 1961 to 1999. The winner of this edition, which received 92 registrations – a record – was the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCDE), for its work in promoting water as the driving force of inclusive growth.
The organization’s secretary-general, José Angel Gurría, could not attend due to other commitments and was represented by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, director of the OCDE’s entrepreneur center. According to her, the money will be invested in new projects for the conscious use of the water, which could also compete for the next editions’ award.
Marrakech, in Morocco, was the first city to host the World Water Forum in 1997. The event then was hosted by The Hague, Holland, Kyoto, Japan, Mexico City, Mexico, Istanbul, Turkey, Marseille, France, and Gyeongju and Daegu, South Korea. The 2018 edition, in Brasília, is the first to take place in the Southern Hemisphere.
*Translated by Sérgio Kakitani
