The Southern city of Morocco, Laayoune has recently hosted the Morocco-United Arab Emirates Business Forum, which kicked off under the theme, "A new outlook, new partnerships".

The Forum is held under the patronage of Morocco's King Mohammed VI, which aims to display the region’s potentialities for Emirati economic stakeholders in investment, partnership and trade opportunities.

This Forum is organised by Laayoune-Sakia El Hamra Regional Council and Morocco’s Investment and Trade Agency (AMDIE). It pursues to discover new investment partnerships between Morocco-Emirati private and public sectors in mining, agriculture, fisheries, renewable energy, construction, and tourism.

The governor of the Laayoune province, while speaking at the opening, highlighted “the excellence of relations between the Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates, welcoming the multidimensional strategic partnership between the 2 countries”.

Sidi Hamdi Ould Errachid, the president of the regional council said “the opening of the consulate general of the UAE in Laayoune gave a fresh impetus to political, economic, commercial and cultural bilateral connections”.

He further added that the organisation of this forum revealed the tough determination of the UAE to contribute to the dynamics of the development of the region”.

UAE was also the first Arab state to open a consulate in Morocco’s southern city of Laayoune in the Western Sahara in November 2020.

Achieving international recognition for its claim to the Western Sahara has long been Morocco’s most imperative diplomatic goal and the decision of UAE has facilitated to build support towards that end with other Arab allies.

Western Sahara, though a sparsely-populated desert region, has rich phosphate deposits, fishing waters and also Morocco’s only operational land route into the rest of Africa, as its border with Algeria is closed.