The President of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres, has announced that the airline Binter will start three new routes with Morocco this summer, while at the same time he has stated that there is a commitment to activate the maritime line with Tarfaya.
This is what he said on his first day of his official visit to Morocco on Wednesday, where he was accompanied by the Regional Minister of Economy, Knowledge and Employment, Elena Máñez, and the Regional Minister of Ecological Transition, Fight against Climate Change and Territorial Planning, José Antonio Valbuena.
Also accompanying the president on his trip to Rabat is a trade delegation made up of representatives of the Canary Islands Confederation of Businessmen (CCE) of Las Palmas, the CEOE Tenerife, the Canary Islands chambers of commerce, the Association of Canary Islands Industrialists, the Transport and Logistics Cluster, ship repair companies, the agri-food sector, information and communication technologies, the real estate sector and chemical products, among other areas, as reported by the regional government in a press release.
In Torres’ first visit to Morocco – to Rabat and Casablanca – he was received by the head of the Government, Aziz Akhannouch; by the President of the House of Representatives, Rachid Talbi Alami; by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Resident Abroad, Nasser Bourita, and by the Minister of Transport and Logistics, Mohamed Abdeljalil. He was accompanied at all the receptions by the Spanish Ambassador to Morocco, Ricardo Díez-Hochleitner Rodríguez.
After the institutional meetings, the President of the Canary Islands said that one of the “most important” agreements reached with the Moroccan government was the improvement of connectivity between the two territories.
In this regard, he pointed out that the Canary Islands capital company Binter will open three new routes from July with the cities of Essaouira, Tangiers and Guelmim, to which he added the commitment of the Moroccan Government and that of the Canary Islands to activate the maritime line with Tarfaya.
For this Thursday, 16 March, he indicated that an addendum is expected to be signed in Casablanca to activate Canary Islands investments in third countries in Africa through the Canary Islands public company, PROEXCA.
The President of the Canary Islands wished to highlight the “good neighbourly” relations that Morocco and Spain maintain, as well as the fact that both countries have agreed not to take unilateral decisions on matters that concern both states, since “good” relations between the two countries “have positive repercussions” for the archipelago.
In this respect, Torres stressed, in the context of good relations, that so far in 2023 and compared to the same months in 2022, “the migratory flow has been reduced by 60 percent”.
MARITIME AREAS
Finally, the President of the Canary Islands pointed out that in view of the “good relations” between Morocco and Spain, the working groups for the delimitation of coastal areas on the Atlantic coast have been reactivated, stressing that “thanks to this, the Canary Islands is participating in these working groups”.
The Canary Islands President also stressed the “importance” of this visit for “further strengthening” trade links with the Kingdom of Morocco, a country in which 26 Canary Islands companies are established and with which some 160 export and import companies work.
Torres stressed the need to continue cooperating and developing projects with great potential with “Africa’s main trading partner”, as there are currently 16,444 Moroccans living in the Canary Islands, the largest African nationality living in the archipelago.
