RABAT, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Moroccan-Portuguese economic forum opened here on Tuesday in Rabat with the aim to explore means to boost business partnership between the two countries.
Held under the theme "Synergies for industrial co-investment," the forum was inaugurated by Moroccan Prime Minister Saad-Eddine El Othmani and his Portuguese counterpart Antonio Costa.
The forum, which is organized on the occasion of the Moroccan-Portuguese 13th high-level meeting, is meant to promote business and investment opportunities in key areas and to establish new partnerships between the two countries' business communities.
It is bringing together a large delegation of Portuguese enterprises and Moroccan economic operators in various sectors.
Morocco is a major partner of Portugal in the Arab world and the second in Africa after Angola, the former colony of Portugal.
Some 200 Portuguese companies are installed in Morocco, while a total of 1,239 Portuguese companies are exporting to Morocco, an increase of 17 percent between 2011 and 2015.
In 2015, Portugal's exports of goods and services to Morocco surged 18.5 percent to 649.9 million euros (766.9 U.S. dollars), while imports rose 12.2 percent to 211.1 million euros, according to data from the Portuguese Institute of Statistics.
