São Paulo – Royal Air Maroc should resume its flights to Brazil late this year. The information was supplied this Friday (15th) by the Moroccan ambassador to Brasília, Mohamed Louafa, during a meeting at the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce headquarters, on occasion of the visit of the mayor of the Moroccan city of Fès, Hamid Chabat, to São Paulo.
According to the diplomat, the airline will fly twice a week between Casablanca and São Paulo. He added that the airline is negotiating a codeshare agreement with the Brazilian TAM, which in turn will have the right to operate routes to the North African country.
To the president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber, Salim Taufic Schahin, the direct connection is going to boost tourism, as well as bilateral trade relations, especially trade and investment. ”Morocco will be the first North African country to have a direct connection with Brazil,” he stated.
Royal Air Maroc has flown to Rio de Janeiro in the past, but the route was cancelled in 1992.
Reforms
Mayor Chabat, who is also the secretary general of the Union Générale des Travailleurs du Maroc (UGTM), came to Brazil to attend the 2nd congress of the Brazilian union confederation General Workers’ Union (UGT, in the Portuguese acronym), which started last Thursday (14th) and should end on Saturday (16th) in São Paulo.
He also paid a visit to the mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab. At the meeting, Chabat told ANBA, a cooperation agreement was discussed between the two cities, covering the fields of culture, economics, tourism and administrative reforms.
[[IMGTNO2]]The mayor stated that after the constitutional reform passed recently in a popular referendum, Morocco is not only promoting changes in its political structure, but also in the economic area, with greater openness to foreign investment.
“I believe that [the reforms] will lead to overall improvements, both political and economic,” said Chabat. According to him, in the economic sphere, the changes also contemplate the extinction of monopolies and incentive to competition.
Schahin claimed that he envisions “great opportunities for boosting trade, tourism and investment [between the two countries] through this opening process.” As an example he cited fertilizers, which Brazil needs to import, and of which Morocco is a major supplier.
In the first half of the year, Brazilian imports from Morocco reached nearly US$ 500 million, 103% more than in the same period of 2010. Fertilizers were the main items shipped.
The president of the Arab Brazilian Chamber also highglihted that Moroccan handicraft is much appreciated in Brazil.
Chabat invited Schahin to visit Fès and proposed the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Arab Brazilian Chamber and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Moroccan city. Aside from tourism, he highlighted other sectors with potential for growth in the region, such as popular housing construction, trade in general, insurance, industry in general, fertilizer manufacturing and agriculture.
The mayor claimed that the Moroccan people are very fond of Brazilians, particularly because of football. “Brazilian football enchants us, always playing with joy,” he said. “[In Brazil] I felt at home, the people are equal and the treatment is equal,” he added. The Arab Brazilian Chamber CEO, Michel Alaby, also attended the meeting.
Fès is one of the royal cities of Morocco and an important tourist hub. According to Chabat, it was the country’s first political capital and is the “city of memory and of the future.”
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
