Korea and Morocco set to move toward genuine strategic partnership.

On the occasion of the advent of this new promising year, I would like to congratulate and thank The Korea Post and its staff for the hard work they deploy throughout the year, since 1985, in bringing in essential political, business, culture and tourism news and for reaching out to the Diplomatic Missions in Seoul. Indeed, The Korea Post is a precious bridge helping Koreans understand the world and allowing foreigners to see Korea for what it is about.

This is why The Korea Post issues have become important tools for Korean nationals and diplomats, thanks to its scope of activities and its broad coverage of crucial elements to the readers’ understanding.

For Embassies, the The Korea Post turns out to be a key partner for the promotion of bilateral relations with Korea, especially by adding perspectives to ongoing dynamics and trends and by helping to shed light on important events and opportunities.

Thanks to our cooperation, through the publishing of special issues of The Korea Post and supplements, we have been able to throw a spotlight on the excellent development of the Moroccan-Korean thriving bilateral relations.

Indeed, due to the unique longstanding friendship between both countries, a solid and fruitful cooperation has been ushered in, as soon as 1962, on the diplomatic, political, economic and social levels. This closeness was made easier thanks to a tight cultural and mutual understanding shared by two modern emerging states, with deep historical anchorages tracing back to millennial Dynasties.

After 6 joint Commission sessions, the creation of an Inter-parliamentary friendship group and the signing of several crucial memoranda and agreements in key fields, today, Korea and Morocco are ripe and set to achieve other significant milestones by moving towards a genuine strategic Partnership.

The brotherly relations reached a milestone in 2012, when Korea and Morocco celebrated the 50th anniversary of establishment of their diplomatic relations with an outstanding set of festive cultural and artistic events, organized in both countries. They held, the same year, their 6th Joint Commission in Rabat (Morocco) and their findings called for a further reinforcement of the cultural cooperation as it represents a success-maker, by pursuing the following 4 major goals: fostering culture, encouraging “youth and sports”, focusing on education, promoting higher education and scientific research.

Bilateral relations further achieved a new historic dimension as the then-Prime Minister Chung Hong-won paid an official visit to the Kingdom of Morocco on November 24, 2014 and on the occasion of which both countries agreed to live up to the honorable legacy of the bilateral relations as well as to the high expectations and strong political will of the Heads of States. Thus, relations were to be given a new impulse and rewarding partnerships are to be sealed in vital areas to both countries, such as infrastructures, ICTs, technical and scientific trainings, energy, water resources management, and environment protection. Morocco is also bound to become a hub for Korean companies with regards to the ever-growing volume of trade and investments and business opportunities, especially with the launch of a multitude of ambitious sectorial strategies such as the industrial “Emergence Plan”, the “Azur Plan” for tourism, the “Morocco Green Plan” for agriculture or the ICT “Morocco Numeric Plan”, etc.

On the human level, “exchange” is the key element for the youths to get to know each other and to design programs that fit their needs. A matter of pride is the rising number of nationals travelling to Korea or Morocco to start learning the language (Arab/Korean) and to stay for tourism. Besides, Morocco was also hit by the unstoppable Korean Hallyu, the beats, drama and culture which were found tremendous resonation among the Moroccan younger population.

This all leads us to today, where the prospects of the bilateral relations are greater than ever and can only go uphill thanks to the aforementioned firm footings. This year, Morocco is also going to host important and major events such as the COP22 in Marrakech (November) or the 27th Arab League Summit (March), which will surely give us food for thought and matter for future supplements of The Korea Post.

I sincerely wish every success to The Korea Post for a New Year full of significant publications and achievements.