China, Morocco vow industrial cooperation

BEIJING - Chinese Premier Li Keqiang vowed to beef up industrial capacity cooperation with Morocco when meeting with King Mohammed VI in Beijing on Thursday.

The Chinese government supports Chinese companies taking part in the infrastructure construction and industrialization in Morocco, he said, suggesting cooperation in the areas of industrial parks, high-speed railways and renewable energy.

China will step up efforts to transfer applicable technology and train technical and managerial personnel for Morocco, in a bid to enhance the self-development capacity of the country, said Li.

He expressed hope that the two sides would concentrate on several demonstrative cooperative projects, so as to boost common development and prosperity.

Li said he appreciated King Mohammed VI's decision granting Chinese citizens visa-free access from June 1 this year, stressing that China is willing to work with Morocco to facilitate people-to-people exchanges between the two sides.

King Mohammed VI said Morocco appreciates China's achievements in development and the strong measures it has taken to address climate change.

He spoke highly of China's policy towards Africa and China's proposition of non-interference in internal affairs of other countries as well as peaceful settlement of disputes.

Morocco hopes to cooperate more with China in infrastructure building, high-speed railways and green industries and expand people-to-people exchanges, said the King.

Top Chinese legislator Zhang Dejiang also met with the King on Thursday.

Zhang, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), called on the two sides to boost cooperation by implementing the ten China-Africa cooperation plans and jointly advancing the Belt and Road initiative.

The NPC is ready to expand friendly exchanges and enhance legislative cooperation with Morocco's parliament, so as to provide legal guarantees for bilateral political, economic and cultural exchanges, said Zhang.

King Mohammed VI started his state visit to China on Wednesday.