The Russians are coming!

We have always been amazed at the way young Moroccans who work with tourists are able to muster a great number of words in half a dozen languages. Now they may need to add Russian to their repertoire. King Mohammed VI has sent a message via Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the Russian President Vladimir Putin, offering Russian citizens visa-free entry. Putin responded by giving strong support to the move and issued a message which said in part..."The decision will definitely encourage tourism and business contacts between our nations."

Morocco is Russia's leading trade partner in Africa and the move should further cement what appears to be a very healthy relationship. Lavrov on Tuesday met King Mohammed VI, before holding talks with Prime Minister Driss Jettou.

In 2003, according to the latest full year figures issued by the Moroccan trade statistics office, the country imported 6.72 billion dirhams (615 million euros / 719 million dollars) worth of Russian goods, particularly clothing, other fabrics and paper and packaging materials.

Its exports to Russia that year, worth 727 million dirhams (about 66 million euros / 78 million dollars), consisted mainly of fish and fisheries products, canned foods and textiles.

And while we are on the diplomatic beat, Malaysia is also moving closer to Morocco through cooperation ties. The Moroccan Minister of Communication and Spokesperson of the Government, Nabil Benabdallah, has affirmed Morocco's keenness to establish closer cooperation ties with Malaysia in information communication technology. He is attending the Sixth Conference of the Ministers of Information of Non-Aligned Countries (Cominac) being held in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur.

The move has some interesting implications for the media. In particular participants have discussed a number of issues relating to ICT, mainly Malaysia's proposal to set up the NAM News Network (NNN),an Internet-based news exchange centre aimed at presenting accurate news on NAM and not biased news as portrayed by the western media. As one observer put it ...a move hailed as "a vital media platform for the NAM member countries to counter false news reports and allegations by foreign media."

Some 160 senior officials from 82 countries of the 114 members in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in addition to observer nations have attended the event.

Tags: Morocco, Fès, travel, Fez,