On Thursday May 28th, 2009, Mr. Salah Eddine MEZOUAR, Minister of Economy and Finance, and Mr. Jassim Al Manaii, General Director of the Arab Monetary Fund (AMF), signed financing agreements at the Ministry`s headquarters in Rabat. The agreements amount to MAD 2.2 billion, MAD 1.7 billion of which dedicated to support reforms in the public finance sector and MAD 410 million to finance foreign trade.
The first agreement is designed to assist Morocco in its reform programmes in public finance, while the second is a financing programme, aiming at funding Arab trade between AMF member countries, is designed to assist Moroccan exportation.
Mr. MEZOUAR gave a speech on this opportunity to welcome his Excellency Dr. Jassim al Manaii, and thanked AMF for its contribution in consolidating Morocco`s economic and financial stability, with backing up its balance of payments, and financing economic and financial reforms.
He added that the AMF had always assisted Morocco in the concretisation of its structural reforms launched in the economic and financial domains, and that the loan that the AMF had granted was very timely, as Morocco wanted to implement such reforms and mobilise the necessary resources to do so.
For his part, Mr. Jassim Al Manaii congratulated Mr. MEZOUAR for the excellent relations between Morocco and the Financing Programme for Arab Trade. He underlined AMF`s interest in Morocco and elaborated on the Fund`s contribution in financing the structural programmes launched by Morocco in the public finance domain.
Based in Abu-Dhabi, the AMF is a regional Arab organisation, founded in Rabat in 1976. Its main objectives are to hold in check the balance-of- payment disequilibrium of its member states, devise policies and patterns of Arab monetary cooperation, and promote trade among Arab states.
From 1974 to 2008, AMF granted several loans to Morocco to finance economic and financial reform programmes. These loans amount to MAD 6 billion.