Invited by the General Confederation of Moroccan Entreprises (CGEM), a Finnish delegation headed by the Minister of Environment conducted a conference, Thursday, in Casablanca with the objective of helping the Moroccan private sector benefit from the country's clean and green technologies. Business Finland, is a delegation comprised of 19 representatives of Finnish companies, operating in sectors ranging from energy to water and bio-economy that visited Morocco this week. Finpro, the Finnish agency of promotion of commerce and Tekes and the country's innovation finance agency have organized a meeting with their Moroccan counterparts in order to enable collaboration between the two countries, particularly in the fields of green and clean technologies for which Finland has a proven expertise on Thursday at the CGEM headquarters. In the spirit of collaboration and win-win partnerships, Mr Tiilikainen, Minister of Environment, Energy and Housing and head of the Finnish delegation present in Morocco, explains in a speech he delivered during the conference that «investing in clean technologies that benefit both the economy and the environment means securing our future». Learning from the Finnish experience «It is important that our country and Morocco (…) have a lot of similarities, we are both very active in environmental issues and promoting sustainable development», the Minister told Yabiladi. The Finnish representative also stressed the necessity to involve the private sector and businesses «from the very beginning» as it would be «the private sector that has the solutions to improve» and could eventually lead the way towards an economy «where there are valuable resources». Meanwhile, President of the CGEM Miriem Bensalah-Chaqroun during the conference acknowledged the experience of the visiting delegation and their country in the sectors of water, waste recycling and renewable energies and called for a sustainable exchange between the two nations. The head of the Moroccan entreprise syndicate indeed explained that Finland was one of the most environmentally-friendly countries and was a role model for Morocco in the renewable energy field. For the record, the European country is a recognized expert in the field of sustainable water management and renewable energies. Indeed, the country currently sources 40% of its energy from clean sources and makes sustainable use of its 650 rivers and over 180,000 lakes and intends to further develop these sectors through R&D investments and innovation.
