Address of Hon. Rachid Talbi El Alami Speaker of the House of Representatives At Opening Session of the Parliamentary Conference on South-South Cooperation

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Honorable Enaam Mayara, Speaker of the House of Councilors,

Honorable Speakers of National Parliaments, each in your name and capacity,

Esteemed heads and members of delegations,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am pleased to meet you once again, esteemed guests, and I welcome you to the Kingdom of Morocco upon the gracious invitation of my colleague, Honorable Enaam Mayara, to whom I reiterate my thanks for including the House of Representatives in this Parliamentary Conference that seeks to contribute through ideas and propositions to reinforcing South-South Cooperation, amidst the present regional and international contexts.

As we all know, the notion of South-South Cooperation is not a new one, as the Non-Aligned Movement came into being since more than 60 years ago amidst the context of the Cold War, in the shape of a global movement that opposes colonialism and aims to keep a distance from both poles of the world for more than 45 years.

Amidst the creation dynamism, the peoples and leaders of the Movement countries aspired to enable the countries of Africa, Latin America, Asia, and a part of Eastern Europe to achieve collective development and have independent political and diplomatic decisions. However, the ideologization of the Movement, its failure to comply with the spirit behind its creation, and the harsh circumstances that some of its countries have faced while constructing the National State, are all elements that have weakened its noble quests.

We are not going to assess the performance of the Non-Aligned Movement, to which we wish complete success, in its current format and vision. However, we will seek the means that would help our countries rise economically, politically, and socially and hold the position they deserve in the 21^st-century world so that they enjoy their immense and diverse resources and impact international decisions in a way that reflects their history, magnitude, and population size.

In all the issues and questions proposed for debate during this Conference, our countries have all the means and assets to progress and grow, and why not alter the course of many developments in history.

For instance, our countries have enormous resources in areas such as economy, energy, and raw materials:

• They possess minerals and treasures that are today considered the key to several technological and mechanical industries, aside from gas and oil, in addition to their enormous potential in producing energy from renewable sources;
• Our countries also feature the most extensive arable lands in the world. In this regard, our African continent alone is home to 60% of arable lands in the world, and you can imagine the role it can play in a world where the race for food is accelerating;
• Moreover, God has blessed our countries with remarkable locations, as they are between the three largest oceans of the world and three large seas, and you must indeed be all aware of the importance of seas, maritime platforms, and seaways in international trade, food provision, tourism, and communication. Let us, for instance, take a closer look at our African continent, which encompasses 13 million square kilometers of seabed, 6.5 million square kilometers of continental shelf, and 26,000 square kilometers of shore. Esteemed colleagues, the majority of you are certainly more aware than me of the strategic importance of seas, seaways, and seaports in international trade, which is today heavily affected by the geopolitical and security conditions around the world, particularly in the Middle East;
• On top of that, our countries possess enormous human resources whose nucleus is a young generation that aspires to a better tomorrow and better living conditions that are similar to the ones that the youth of the countries of the North enjoy.

One of the fundamentals for the renaissance of our regional groups is the richness of our cultures, their diversity, depth, and entrenchment. It is a tapestry that cannot be standardized or dominated because it drives a historical conscience and encourages attachment to the origins in a way that does not exclude the other nor does it make difference with them an obstacle that hinders cooperation, acculturation, and exchange.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Despite this potential that needs to be transformed into wealth and projects, the question about the challenges our countries are facing still arises. Among these challenges are issues of instability, conflicts, migrations, displacements, asylum, the repercussions of climate imbalances, weak investments and capital, low exchanges between our countries and their strong link to the countries of the Center, the low export values of our goods, and our inability to acquire new technologies and skills to turn our potential into wealth.

In order to overcome these challenges, I believe we must seek complementarity among ourselves, exploit the available opportunities, and ensure an appropriate and attractive environment for investments through open legislation, administrative service governance, and the encouragement of entrepreneurial culture.

Our countries have tremendous potential to invest in green economy and renewable energies, considering the job opportunities they create, the economic dynamics they initiate, and the deserved positioning they offer within information and knowledge societies.

Of course, our consensus as geopolitical groups over unified political decisions, the rejection of disputes among our countries, and our total commitment to respecting the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and sovereign decisions of our countries are today prerequisites to achieve our goals, as confirmed by the lessons of history. In this vein, we have many examples of international success, such as the countries of the European Union who, for example, succeeded in achieving their accomplishments after committing to no war within the borders of the European Community after World War II, directing mineral resources and the money allocated to arms to modern industries and the construction of large installations, opening borders among themselves, and unifying their policies and currency.

I do not believe that our countries are incapable of implementing such projects if there is political will and determination within their institutions, whether it be governments, parliaments, and elites, and if citizens believe in this goal, especially since we have effective regional systems, whether in Latin America, Africa, or the Arab world, particularly in the Arab Gulf.

We, as legislative institutions, must particularly unify our advocacy in international fora to defend our causes, plead against the injustice our countries have suffered in the context of an unjust world order, and insist on our right to benefit from technology and skills that should be transferred at a lower cost.

Honorable colleagues,

I will not talk much about the efforts made by the Kingdom of Morocco to achieve these goals during the struggle for independence in which we all participated, during the building of the National State, and today in the context of globalization and its challenges. Still, allow me to mention one of the ambitious and creative projects recently proposed by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may Allah glorify him, which is the initiative to strengthen the access of Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean and develop the African Atlantic coast.

There is no doubt that our three geopolitical groups, Africa, the Arab world, and Latin America, are all concerned with this innovative and strategic initiative as we can imagine the magnitude of the momentum it will launch, the greatness of the development it will generate, the significant benefits we will reap from it, and, essentially, the value of a solidarity that bears the fruit of common strategic gain. These are major investment projects for linkage, communication, production, and integration among vast human and natural resources.

This is just one of the deeply rooted initiatives and projects that the Kingdom does not hesitate to propose within the scope of the South-South Cooperation doctrine, which is now a part and component of the credo of Moroccan diplomacy as established and led by His Majesty the King, may Allah glorify him.

Thank you for your keen listening, and I wish you every success in your proceedings.