African Parliaments: Morocco joins Executive Committee of Association of Secretaries-General
Morocco was elected member of the Executive Committee of the Association of Secretaries-General of African Parliaments (ASGAP) on the sidelines of the ongoing proceedings of the standing committees of the Pan-African Parliament (PAP), held in Midrand, South Africa.
With this election, which took place on the eve of the 11th Conference of Presiding Officers of African National and Regional Parliaments, the Kingdom will sit in the Pan-African association as 1st Vice-President in the person of Najib El Khadi, Secretary General of the House of Representatives.
Morocco’s participation in ASGAP will be an opportunity to reinforce the legal framework that regulates this Association, especially since the representative of the Moroccan Parliament will be a member of the Committee in charge of elaborating this framework.
Morocco is thus consolidating its presence within the Pan-African Parliament, which it joined in 2018.
In an address at the 11th Summit of the African Parliaments’ speakers, taking place at the PAP headquarters in Midrand, Speaker of the Moroccan House of Representatives (Lower House) underlined Morocco’s full involvement in the development of Africa and its relentless plea for promoting South-South partnership.
He recalled in this connection the Kingdom’s huge investments in a number of countries in the frame of win-win logic. 60% of the Moroccan investments abroad are directed towards Africa.
The African farm houses, in addition to the AAA Initiative, launched by King Mohamed VI, with a number of African brothers, during the COP 22 summit held at Marrakech in 2016, represent some examples of wealth producing, and poverty deflecting cooperation. The purpose here is to reduce the African fragility and its agriculture in the face of climatic imbalances, and the promotion of some agricultural project in a number of African countries, he added.
Having at its disposal some advanced expertise in several sectors such as agriculture, sea fishing, water resource mobilization, renewable energies, health care generalization, fighting epidemics, and food security, Morocco is permanently ready to continue its partnership with its brothers in Africa. It does this on the basis of the belief of common gain and interest, and on the basis of the respect of the brothers’ choices, institutions, sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Moroccan parliament’s speaker added.
He stressed the need for African countries to build a new Africa which will rise from the ruins caused by political scissions, resource crises and scarcity and to work on projects and policies which will help Africa take advantage of its resources.
He recalled in this connection the historical address of King Mohammed VI before the 28th Summit of the African leaders on January 31st 2017 when he said “the time has come for Africa to profit from its riches. After decades of looting the resources of the African lands, it is now necessary to create a new period of prosperity.”
