Wallonia in Morocco

I am a lawyer by training and have lived in Morocco for almost four years; I work with a Walloon accountant who has been living in Casablanca for almost 15 years.

Our business means that we meet a number of investors and entrepreneurs keen to develop business in Morocco, as well as Moroccan businesspeople looking to export.

Together with other Belgians, we came up with the idea of founding CASABELGA (www.casabelga.com) to bring together consultants with considerable expertise and experience in Morocco.

One of CASABELGA's aims is to offer Walloon investors and entrepreneurs a contact point, where a single person can give them top-quality support and the exact answers they need. This network of consultants known as CASABELGA is in constant contact with the AWEX representative Takis Kakayannis.

Working the other way, CASABELGA also intends to promote Wallonia among Moroccan entrepreneurs, with the support of MAROC EXPORT.

Finally, we also promote Moroccan/Walloon relations in the areas of culture, sport and associations through ADEL EVENTS (www.adelevents.com). In this context, I am in regular contact with the FWB delegation in Rabat.

The "Wallonia.be" brand becomes meaningful, as our Region is characteristically welcoming and open to others.

Wallonia also demonstrates its dynamism and potential through its external projection.

It is not always easy to explain Belgium and its complex institutional set-up abroad.

Our country has just undergone its sixth State reform, which has completed the regionalism programme.

To evoke Wallonia, the movement involved in the Walloon National Congress in Liège, in October 1945, seems to have brought this about in just under 70 years!

Wallonia now has the tools to express its identity better than ever, in terms of social policies, economic policies and environmental policies.

This is a major strength for our region and shows how, modestly and with others, we are trying to further strengthen Moroccan-Walloon relations.